2009 Winninger Rottgen Auslese

A 2009 Winninger Rottgen Riesling Auslese A.P. #15 which Knebels were set to auction, comes in large part from the vines that informed the corresponding Alte Reben bottling. Silken-smooth, creamy, and boasting the delicacy as well as the saliva-inducing, saline savor of its #14 sibling, this adds a more vivid sense of juicy citrus and fresh nectarine to contrast with – but thus, ultimately, compliment – quince preserves, marzipan, white raisin, and caramelized peach. The finish here vividly and uncannily demonstrates the degree to which this wine has borrowed energy and primary sap from some inexplicable source so that for all of its confectionary persistence it displays remarkable mineral nuance and leaves one lip-licking in eager anticipation of the next stimulating sip! I would anticipate 25 or more years of delight from this. With the continued assistance of oenologist Gernod Kollmann (even though he has become proprietor-winemaker of the revived Immich-Batterieberg estate – about which see my report in this issue), Beate and son Matthias Knebel have fielded a strong collection of 2009s, enhanced by their manifestly successful attempts to see the Bruckstuck and Hamm sites as they put it “come out from beneath the shadow” of the better-known Rottgen and Uhlen. As mentioned in the introduction to this entire report, Matthias Knebel was concerned by the threat of galloping Oechsle, and the same worry applied to diminishing acidity, both of which led him to accelerate the harvest midway through, a plan that was not helped by Beate Knebel’s fall from a stone terrace, which sent her to the hospital for three days and an operation on her shattered shoulder, after which she went back to harvesting, one-armed! The finished analytical profiles of these wines are not only higher in alcohol but notably lower in acidity (not much over 6 gram range on average, even factoring in the sweet wines) than Rieslings from other parts of the Mosel, yet at the same time, precipitant ripening compelled (aesthetically-speaking) the bottling of considerably more residually sweet wine (even if not all of the individual lots are large) than the Knebels’ traditional customer base demands. The Hamm trocken and two generic wines were bottled in May, the rest not until a month before my September tasting session. Mosel Wine Merchant Trier, Germany (various importers); tel. (413) 429-6176; +49 (0) 651 14551 38, also Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463