Dr. Crusius Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Spatlese, Nahe, Germany

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The 2018 Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Sp?tlese displays wholemeal bread and pine nut flavors. Clear, lush and spicy on the palate, this is a delicate and crystalline, salty-piquant Sp?tlese with good grip. It's stimulating and not all too sweet (60 grams of residual sugar). Tasted in July 2019.

The 2017 Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Sp?tlese displays wholemeal bread, white chocolate, dried apricot and pine nut flavors on the nose. Lush and creamy on the honey-sweet palate, this is a crystalline, salty-piquant and also racy Sp?tlese with good grip and tension. This still-nervous Sp?tlese needs a couple of years to become more quiet and calm. Tasted from AP 28 18 in August 2019.

While a Traiser Riesling XIII (its Roman numeral, following a rather odd Crusius convention, designating grams of residual sugar in his off-dry wines) seemed somewhat blurred by a lactic component; a juicy, apply Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Kabinett proved soft and simple; and a Riesling XX sold in liter bottles downright limp, the unabashedly sweet Crusius 2010 Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Spatlese more than satisfactorily delivers abundant, succulent fruit, Scheurebe-like in its effusive projection of grapefruit, peach, tangerine and sage. Nips of brown spices and an aura of honey from nose to tail suggest an ennobling but subtle brush with botrytis that has not robbed the wine of downright infectious finishing juiciness. Indeed, in its brightness this bottling struck me as possibly signaling a turning point in the present collection toward unadjusted or unnoticeably-adjusted acidity; but with the exception of one Auslese and of the collection's two Eisweins, higher-Oechsle bottlings - whether from sheer sweetness or diminished acidity - proved not to approach this Spatlese's vivacity or energy. Still, I doubt that this would hold up well and long enough in bottle for one to anticipate any significant diminution of its sheer sweetness, and going on that assumption, I would advise relishing its generosity within the next 3-5 years. As usual, Peter Crusius- collection - which, in his absence, I tasted with his wife Birgitta - offers a lot to like even if it is far from consistently successful and incorporates at its high residual sugar sector some wines that I find overridingly sweet and lacking the sort of distinction that justifies selective botrytis harvest. Also typical for this estate is a welcoming attitude toward malo-lactic transformation of its dry wines, which thus became a means - coupled with outright adjustment - of dealing with 2010s high acids.Importer: Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 642 5500

Scents of ripe white peach, heliotrope, and musky peony perfume the Crusius’ 2009 Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Spatlese, along with a prickly hint of lemon rind that anticipates a palate impression lushly ripe, subtly honeyed, yet tartly, juicily invigorating. At 9% alcohol, this is strikingly delicate, and pungent brown spices add to its impressively persistent finishing stimulation. This ought to reward holders handsomely for at least the next 5-6 years. Peter Crusuis’s 2009 collection perpetuates a welcome trend toward qualitative consistency. Moreover, not only could nobody fault these wines for lack of assertive personalities, several deliver genuinely compelling attraction. That Riesling from this address is generally best enjoyed on the early side reflects traits already exhibited by the wines that served as my own introduction, namely those crafted in the ‘70s and ‘80s under Hans Crusius, whose indefatigable labors and unforgettable wit brought this estate to international prominence, and who died in November, 2009. But Riesling doesn’t have to be enormously long-lived to still be timelessly great.Importer: Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 642 5500

The 2006 Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Spatlese represents a major jump in must weight and botrytis. Orange marmalade, yellow plum preserves, and honey inform a glossy, sleek, yet quite delicate palate. Brash acidity, with citrus zest and tart pit fruit skin lend a sense of invigoration that follows into the penetrating finish, where at most the slightest hint of caramelization can be perceived. Peter Crusius claims that the concentration of acidity is also the work of botrytis, even if in some Nahe 2006s an opposite effect can be witnessed. I would drink this at 5-10 years’ age. In contrast to what one would normally expect, this year Riesling succumbed to botrytis more quickly than some of his other varieties, notes Peter Crusius.No U.S. importer.