A 2005 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese imposingly concentrates aromas and flavors of flowers, nut oils, orchard and citrus fruits, and vanilla. Displaying the juxtaposition of creamy, imposingly oily texture with mouth-watering acidity that is a 2005 hallmark chez Joh. Jos. Prum, this Spatlese offers a depth, generosity, and diversity of fruits - apple, peach, lemon, pineapple - underlain by wet stone, nut oils, and vanilla, that present a compelling picture of a great site. "We made what I think was the right decision to harvest relatively early," says Manfred Prum, before botrytis became the most prominent element in the wines' character as in his opinion had been the case in 1976. Still, the Prums were blessed this year with terrific quality but cursed with a dearth of material that could legitimately be bottled even as Spatlese let alone Kabinett. (Note: There is usually more than one bottling and therefore more than one eventual A.P. number chez Prum for any given Kabinett or non-auction Spatlese and even some Auslesen. The differences in character, they promise, are kept to a minimum, and indeed in many cases it is a matter of the same base wine temporarily stored in more than one tank. For that reason, I was as usual not privy to the A.P. numbers of the un-bottled, non-auction wines that I tasted.)
