Weingut Daniel Vollenweider Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese, Mosel, Germany

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Vollenweider's 2015 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese starts with super clear and precise stone fruit aromas on the nose but is even more concentrated and is also spicier than the corresponding BA. (My bottle was open for four weeks though.) On the palate, this is a gorgeous TBA, very concentrated, sweet and viscous but also with a remarkable total acidity of 15.5 grams per liter and very good tannin grip that obviously comes from the seeds. A great TBA that has been sold entirely to the UK. Total production: one glass balloon or 18 liters.

The purity of botrytis, impeccably balance (it’s bright, but not to the extent that 17 grams of acidity would suggest!) and sheer persistence of this elixir – of which, incidentally, there are around 200 liters – promise 30-40 years of increasing delight and fascination. In terms of selection and heightened concentration, his 2010 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese is to his corresponding B.A., says Vollenweider, what his gold capsule Auslese is to his “regular” Auslese, so he adorns the T.B.A.s with a gold capsule but says “please don’t refer to them as ‘gold capsule T.B.A.’ which would be misleading.” There are only 30 liters of this. Pungent, prickling aromas of lemon rind, radish and dusty, faintly fungal botrytis are followed by a viscous palate on which white raisin, vanilla extract, candied lemon rind, and peach preserves largely overwhelm any of the Eiswein-like prickle or overt botrytis character that was signaled on the nose. The textural allure as well as the uncanny combination of levity and density possessed by the corresponding B.A. is missing here, although it is to be sure very early days in the life of such an embryonic super-concentrate. For sheer persistence this is hard to beat, and I expect it will be worth revisiting for half a century. In 2010, Daniel Vollenweider’s suffered roughly a two-thirds crop loss vis-a-vis his normal expectations. Picking of this depleted vintage began already on October 8 and was finished at month’s end. “It wasn’t a year of great phenolic ripeness,” he reports candidly, “and picking decisions were incredibly difficult.” Vollenweider extended skin contact and bottled most of his wines later than usual in order to afford his young wines longer time on their lees. Only a single trocken lot was acid-adjusted, and then merely by one gram, with calcium carbonate. “I would have been happy to let at least some lots – in particular for my dry wine – go through malo,” he remarks, “but my pH levels were so low that there was not a chance of that happening.” Levels of residual sugar are significantly higher in this year’s sweet wines than Vollenweider’s already high norm, but as he asserts “they need this, definitively, to balance out such high acids,” and the net effect is by no means a sweeter taste. Reductive and sulfur-related notes are even a bit more frequently evidence here than one already anticipates at this address, and Vollenweider hypothesizes that the wines’ low pHs led to a temporary accentuation of such traits. Importers include Vineyard Research, Inc., Lunenburg, MA; tel. 617 686 8052; Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR; tel. 888 274 4312; also A Bill Mayer Age of Riesling Selection Imported by Valley View Wine Sales, Glen Ellen, CA; tel. (510) 549 2444

I had the great and fascinating pleasure to taste Vollenweider’s 300 half-bottles’ worth of 2003 Wolfer Goldgrube Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese in the course of its 15 months of fermentative evolution and now again in bottle. The nose of apple distillate, caramelized apple, honey, black tea, rhubarb preserve, resin, and wood smoke reminds me of a really first class Calvados. Come to think of it, this Riesling also looks rather like aged Calvados! The weighty mouth feel is positively gelatinous, Esszencia-like. Given the optical and textural opacity of this material, the clarity and complexity of its flavors are extraordinary. As a lump of this goes down (I couldn’t possibly spit it) one can practically count the layers of fruit, herb, and spice flavors. The fruits themselves display distilled, caramelized, fresh, dried, and jam aspects. Honey, tea, dried berries, distilled apple, apricot paste, and caramelized peach are just a few of the flavors that well up in the finish. Given this wine’s long evolution and (for the genre) relatively low sulfur, it offers a decidedly oxidative side to its flavors, hence the superficial resemblance to mature Calvados or Tokaji. But in the long scheme of things ? well in the long run, I fear, most of those who read this will have sloughed off these mortal shackles whilst Vollenweider’s 2003 T.B.A. will only just be heading into a long and robust middle age. Importers: Vineyard Research, Inc., Wellesley, MA; Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR; Old Vine Imports, San Francisco, CA.