2018 Enkircher Ellergrub Auslese 01 19

“You had to search to find botrytized grapes,” observed Weiser of 2018, and this is the sole instance where those amounted to enough to produce a nobly sweet wine. Apple, pear and mirabelle jellies dominate on the nose and the glossy, decidedly sweet palate. A hint of caramel creeps into a soothingly sustained finish that pulls up short of turning syrupy or sticky. This will be one to revisit in six or eight years to look for complexity and more properly assess the wine’s full potential (though it’s already delicious now). But as readers will note from my quantified prognostication, I am by no means assuming that as a much sweeter product of more concentrated grapes this will outlive its Spätlese or Kabinett counterparts.