Clemens Busch Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Spatlese

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Fig and white peach such as found in the corresponding Kabinett are joined by quince paste and overripe Persian melon in Busch’s 2011 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Spatlese for a succulent, caressingly-textured, and expansive palate performance. Like no small number of residually sweet German Rieslings of its vintage, though, it ultimately comes off as a bit soft for its burden of residual sugar and a bit superficially sweet and unfocused. Perhaps this will become shapelier and its sense of sweetness will back-off a bit before it loses stamina, but tentatively, I would anticipate taking it on its present perfectly winsome terms over the next 5-7 years. For its aggregate of quality and quantity, insists Clemens Busch, 2011 was about as good as he’s ever gotten, even allowing for crop lost to downy mildew, to the late August hail storm, and to the consequent need to eliminate some early, negative botrytis. But he readily admits that the thin-skinned berries wouldn’t have held out more than a few additional days if the September rains hadn’t stopped. While a bit of wine was harvested already in the first days of October, he reports that the weather turned so warm he declared a week-long moratorium on picking. That, he says, was the second existentially critical point in this vintage’s history, because had the October heat continued, it, too, would have spoiled success. That there was considerable botrytis is testified to by this year’s range of ennoble bottlings – largely late-picked, and even those gold capsule designated approaching 200 liters each – and is probably connected with Busch’s organic and biodynamic vineyard regimen. For whatever reason, notes Busch, botrytis-affected musts this year seldom exhibited enhanced acidity; and that proved, to my palate, a handicap for some of them. Picking continued until November 20, which is about as late as any German grower was still at it in 2011. Passive lees contact, Busch opines, was key to providing needed structure and flavor definition to wines from this vintage’s high-sugar, relatively low-acid musts from thin-skinned berries, and I can only add that it almost surely helped in buffering the several bottlings that strayed into 14% alcohol territory. Most of the Busch 2011s were not bottled before mid-summer, and high-sugar musts were still fermenting or had only just ceased fermenting last September and were not to be bottled until after the harvest or possibly even after the new year, so that among dry-tasting single vineyard wines I could not taste Fahrlay-Terrassen, Felsenterrasse or Raffes. (By the same token, I report below on a couple of 2010s that had not yet been amenable to assessment when I reported on the bulk of Busch’s 2010s in issue 199.) Busch has acquired the excellent former local Lenz-Dahm cellar, where his stocks will henceforth be more adequately accommodated than they were in warehouse-like conditions, but vinification will continue to take place at the familiar home venue. As part of the deal, yet more vineyards were acquired, reinforcing what is now Busch’s overwhelming dominance of the Marienburg. As he never tires of pointing out, other growers could have made something of their precious legacy but found the rigor of farming such steep, terraced sites – effectively accessible from the village only by boat – too onerous; and sold-out to him over the years. Both Busch sons have become increasingly involved in their parents’ labors in recent years, the elder having focused on the evolution of the estate’s biodynamic regimen, and currently embarked on an extended work-residence in France.Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191

Favoring grey slate slopes and botrytis-free berries, Busch’s 2010 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Spatlese doesn’t differ dramatically in gross analysis from the corresponding Kabinett, but its flavors reflect an entirely different expression of ripeness. Musk melon, peach and fresh lime envelope the nose and the palate, where an admirable sense of lift is combined with a faintly sweet-sour aura, leading to a persistently invigorating finish. I suspect this will become both more harmonious and nuanced, and ought to perform well for at least 10-12 years. In contrast with most of his Riesling-growing countrymen, Clemens Busch claims that despite the vicissitudes of vintage 2010 and a harvest that lasted through the third week in November his (as always organically-raised) fruit was largely botrytis-free and amounted to a volume only 20% below long-term norms. What’s more, he claims to have harvested scarcely any (save botrytized) grapes at more than a high but manageable 11 grams of acidity and with a good 50% of that being tartaric. Of course, for wines to undergo malo-lactic transformation is not in the least unusual at this address and that was the case once again this year. But virtually all of Busch’s wines had finished both primary and malo-lactic fermentation (in some cases simultaneously – which he prefers – in others sequentially) by June, which is early for his estate. (Exception: one of three Trockenbeerenauslesen was still fermenting and had only reached 3.5% alcohol when I visited in September.) Low sulfur elevage with long lees contact is also normal here, but Busch believes that was especially critical for quality in 2010, guaranteeing that the wines would not harden and that healthy lees would perform a fining and imperfection-healing role such as he claims was taken for granted by Mosel growers two or three generations ago. Careful canopy management, notes Busch, was also critical to 2010 success as a condition for being able to sufficiently postpone picking. This year’s as usual long line-up, incidentally, should not be permitted to deceive: while there are many residually sweet wines in this latest collection, they make up only around 20% by volume of the estate’s 2010 crop. Busch testifies that there is quite a scramble now among young Punderich growers to get a toehold in the Marienburg’s steep slopes that he has in the meantime gone a considerable way toward monopolizing. “The fact is,” he points out, “that at least in their father’s generation such growers’ families had ample opportunity to rescue and cherish these steep slate slopes, but often instead heeded the call of fashion and invested in Dornfelder on the flat side of the river.”Mosel Wine Merchant (various importers); tel. (413) 429-6176; dm@moselwinemerchant.com ; +49 (0) 6742 8980 50; also imported by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312

Anyone who found the lusciousness of the corresponding Kabinett too simple or “merely” sensual to attend to should receive more than his or her quota of mystery at the hands of Busch’s 2009 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Spatlese. Exotic floral perfume suggesting narcissus, lily, and perhaps some strange orchid overlie spiced pear; ethereal, Normandy Sydre-like expressions of apple; and a tropical invasion of mango and papaya. Delicate and creamily-textured, with sweetness perfectly supportive of its floral and fruity profusion, this offers a positively shimmering interchange with saline, alkaline, and wet stone nuances that lasts into a long, luscious, refreshing and restorative finish, subtly capped by a note of caramel. This buoyant, exultant expression of seeming Mosel and Marienburg essence should be worth following for at least two decades. It fermented for more than four months, incidentally, which is very slowly by the standards of outright sweet wines at this address. Perhaps there is a connection between this fact and its particular delicacy and nuanced depth of aromas and flavors. “It was no lovely autumn,” notes Clemens Busch candidly. “We had to pick our botrytis wines very early. We had regular rain from the end of October on, and one really had to take great advantage of the dry days to finish.” Busch reports that while his lower-tier lots largely fermented unproblematically to dryness, his riper single-vineyard bottlings were sluggish, several ending up in the legally halbtrocken territory that I have personally tended to prefer at this address, not least because of the tendency for the trocken lots to betray elevated alcohol. Busch – for more about whose methods, style, and vineyards consult the estate introductions as well as the tasting notes in others of my recent Mosel reports – is unwilling to employ cultured yeasts or otherwise intervene to achieve legal dryness. In view of an unfounded and frankly uninformed phobia many Riesling lovers have when it comes to the very idea, it should be pointed out that most of Busch’s dry-tasting Rieslings have since 2001 undergone malo-lactic transformation. That did not however happen with his 2008s (whose high pH levels precluded it) and only selectively with these 2009s. Furthermore, in Busch’s cellar, this transformation – normally not profound, as his ripe fruit is typically not high in malic acid – generally takes place as an interruption during – rather than subsequent to – the alcoholic fermentation. This peculiarity, he contends, explains the absence of diacetyl or other problematic potential byproducts. Even the lighter cuvees here were not bottled until the three weeks leading up to my mid-September visit, and among those wines then being prepped for bottling were a Felsterrasse and Raffes too shaken-up from filtration for me to judge. That the nobly sweet wines here are as notable for their high quality as their abundance I suppose doesn’t need repeating, provided you survey my ratings.Mosel Wine Merchant Trier, Germany (various importers); tel. (413) 429-6176; +49 (0) 651 14551 38; also imported by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312

Spruce resin, incense, pineapple, spiced apple cider, and quince are all evoked in the nose of Busch’s 2008 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Spatlese, which then comes to the palate with a cooling herbal and juicy fruit character as well as with a combination of subtle creaminess and refreshment that are very vintage-typical. And this luscious though low alcohol and therefore unabashedly sweet Riesling is buoyant and soothingly persistent. I would anticipate 15 or more years of satisfaction, though those like me who prefer only a discreet sense of sweetness will need to wait a decade. Clemens Busch – for more about whose impressive efforts in organically farming diverse sites the length of the long, steep Marienburg consult my reports in issues 179 and 185 – pushed many of his 2008s to extremes of dryness or sweetness. The majority of his dry-tasting wines – most of which did not finish fermenting until early summer – were rendered legally trocken (some of them offered as Grosse Gewachse and some to be released late), and while alcohol per se was seldom a problem this year, I found some of these wines austere, inelegant and charmless. (Dry wines here, incidentally, often go through malolactic transformation, but apparently due to such low pHs in 2008, only a single lot did so. There was however, reports Busch, extensive tartrate precipitation, which lowered the levels of tartaric acid, but automatically enhanced the ratio of green apply malic acidity.) This is not to say there aren’t many bottlings I found impressive and even beautiful in the present collection, especially – for those who don’t mind very prominent sweetness – the range of ennobled wines. Busch didn’t even launch his pre-harvest passes through the vineyards until nearly mid-October, and began serious harvesting only toward the end of that month, finishing in the third week of November, “but,” as he says, “it was a harvest that demanded a lot of time, because one day you could pick, and the next you had to wait due to inclement weather, and the botrytis often developed negatively”, demanding painstaking selection. Apropos the precariousness of Mosel wine culture, here is an amazing statistical anecdote Busch offered. The quality and character of his wines, he believes, is dependent on the high percentage of ancient vines trained in the traditional manner (a.k.a. Stockkultur) to a single stake, with two canes. A single, middle-aged woman who has no protegee is responsible for binding the canes on 80% of Busch’s roughly 25 acres of vines, a talent she acquired out of personal passion, and one that only a handful of even septuagenarian Moselaner any longer possess!Mosel Wine Merchant selections (various importers), Trier, Germany; fax 011 49 (0)651-14551 39; also imported by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312

The Busch 2007 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Spatlese smells of orange and apricot blossoms and fruit, with a suggestion of honey that is reinforced on a creamy, caramel-tinged palate dripping with apricot and Persian melon. This beautifully marries richness and textural caress with lift and delicacy, finishing like a long floral inhalation, and with subtly integrated sweetness. I expect it to be worth following for at least a decade. Clemens Busch – among the Mosel’s few organic vintners, and the undisputed champion of the Lower Mosel’s steep Pundericher Marienburg – is also rapidly demonstrating that he is simply one of the collective Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer’s exceptional talents, not to mention stylistically free spirits. Most of his top wines are labeled with their old pre-1971 site names. Nature thrust on him in 2006 an unprecedented 9 Auslesen (many distinguished only by number), 3 Beerenauslesen, and single T.B.A. (most of which were reviewed in issue 179). In 2007, an at least slightly more normal – not to mention more marketable – balance of dry-tasting (though not always legally trocken) wines was restored, but success, Busch insists, was possible only by dint of great patience and then, when the time was ripe for picking, in great haste. A considerable number of overtly nobly sweet wine was picked in the process, as there was no lack of botrytis in this fungicide-free zone.Mosel Wine Merchant selections (various importers), Trier, Gemany; fax 011 49 (0)651-14551 39; also imported by by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312