Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese Long Gold Capsule A P #1

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Hanno Zilliken’s search for what he calls “the perfect Auslese” culminates in a 2010 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese long gold capsule A.P. #1, the last of four wines (all but one, Auslese) that he offered for auction the week after I tasted with him in September. Lime zest; musky, sharp rose-radish; truffle; and alkaline, saline sea breeze lend the nose an ominously prickly and intriguing aura. This hits the palate with such implosive concentration that it tugs at your tear ducts as much as your salivary glands. Imagine simultaneous immersion in fresh lemon and lime juice; a field full of fungus; peach and mango preserves; and the ocean. The adjectives “bright,” “severe,” and “gripping” don’t begin to do justice to what I’m experiencing while hooked up to this Riesling. Don’t even think of touching the cables much less changing the battery on such a high-voltage, spark-throwing self-charging power-pack. Perhaps take a peak under the cork in five or six years? I’m really not sure what that will tell us. But I am guessing perhaps in two decades things will take shape, and we’ll know how close this already formidable accomplishment came to Zilliken’s dream of Auslese perfection. The wine will probably outlive all but a few folks who read this note in 2012.Hanno and Dorothee Zilliken’s 2010 collection has served for some controversy in that they not only – like Schaefers in Graach – adopted the minority position that de-acidification should be to wine, not must, but also – in this respect unlike Schaefers – performed acid-adjustments throughout their residually sweet line-up. Not that the extreme nature of what they eventually bottled could possible fail in itself to raise eyebrows. To declare myself up front (not that this isn’t evident from my scores!): I found this year’s collection chez Zilliken utterly awesome and cannot imagine that somehow seeds of early decline or subsequent disappointment are harbored in any of these wines on account of their levels of acid having been trimmed from the perilous heights where nature had left them. The view is dizzying enough (as befits the name “Rausch”) at the altitudes Hanno Zilliken chose for these Rieslings’ flight paths. “It was the tiny, millerandaged berries with their thick skins and the extreme, protracted shriveling by wind and botrytis that characterized this vintage and that concentrated everything in the grapes including ripe acidity. But even such high extract and ripeness,” insists Zilliken, “often wouldn’t have sufficed to achieve balance. Maybe in their youth, but once the baby fat was gone the acids would have come through too aggressively.” He grants, though, that experience with acid levels as high as these was formerly confined to unripe vintages (such as several he suffered through when he took over his family’s estate in the 1980s) or Eiswein. “If you’re talking about a half a gram or one gram of acid adjustment, you’re talking there about 50 or 100 liters of totally de-acidified and filtered wine blended back into a thousand liter fuder, and I just don’t see any danger. For the first two weeks, all we did was seek- and pick-out shriveled material,” narrates Zilliken, who when I ask him about his “main harvest,” replies, laughing: “What harvest? There really wasn’t much left to do after that! But those grapes that did remain healthy and green were incredibly stable. We let them hang and then picked them at the very end for our dry wines which we didn’t de-acidify. There was no Q.b.A., Kabinett, or Spatlese (he means by must weight): Auslese was the least that we harvested. After the 2005s,” Zilliken sums-up, “we thought we could never again see such a vintage of superlatives; yet 2010 in some ways begins where 2005 left off.” Only in Pradikat-labeling did this differ from previous top Zilliken collections. Waiting for Eiswein was judged a fool’s errand since Eiswein-like concentration and acidity pervaded the lot, which in turn, Zilliken thought, kept any from having genuine B.A. or T.B.A. character. An “I-don’t-know-how-they-did-it, but” feeling accompanied me as I toured what this estate had wrought in 2010.Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463

Zilliken also slated his 2007 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese Long Gold Capsule A.P. #1 for auction, and this result of extreme selection across numerous parcels is noteworthy, even at a glance, for its surprisingly pale green-gold color. A huge concentration on nose as well as palate of lemon, grapefruit, and distilled-strength herbal essences seems entirely consistent with that appearance. That said, white raisin, sultana, fig and caramelized peaches – all reflecting the presence of botrytis – also abound here. More than 200 grams of sugar seem somehow to have been spirited away from one’s taste buds, and one result is clear access of a multitude of flavor nuances as well as retention of elegance and refreshment. This finishes with a tsunami of citrus concentrates, honey, caramel, and black tea, bearing diverse dried fruits, lavender, licorice, spices, and crushed stone. This kaleidoscopic, penetrating, and nearly endlessly finishing beauty should remain marvelous for 40 years.It might seem hard to believe that Hanno Zilliken could once again out-performed a vintage in the way that he did 2005 and 2006. But his having designated an unprecedented four different wines of the 2007 vintage as auction offerings certainly speaks to his confidence – well-founded, I would say – in the quality of this collection’s top end. The vintage’s “Riesling Butterfly” – stemming largely from Saarburg’s Antoniousbrunnen and Bergschlosschen vineyards (behind the Rausch, and overlooking a tiny Saar tributary) and in only small measure from the Rausch and Bockstein – was reviewed in issue 184 and remains lovely, if at present less generous than there-described. No off-dry generic estate Riesling was bottled this vintage, and with 2008 Zilliken will be seen to have made other changes in the lower half of his price list.Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463