2007 Riesling Sommerberg

Aromas of apricot and high-toned kirsch, almond extract, and gentian strikingly announce the Boxler 2007 Riesling Sommerberg Eckberg. Bright and juicy on the palate, it is suffused with saline, alkaline, and crushed stone elements that carry into luscious, lip-smacking, and invigorating finish. Floral and distilled fruit notes add allure throughout. This superbly-concentrated and poised Riesling (whose 8 grams of residual sugar are supportive without being noticeable per se) should hold up well to a dozen or more years in bottle. Jean Boxler emphasizes the contrast between one of the earliest and hastiest harvest ever at his family’s estate – “just three days after I finished bottling the 2005s, and then every day, including Sunday” – in order to salvage clean fruit in 2006; and the protracted harvest of 2007. “In fact,” he explains, “I started in 2006 with the intention of harvesting grapes for cremant, but they were already too ripe.” Thanks to meticulous vineyard practices and early picking, a surprisingly consistent and satisfying collection resulted. “Half the fruit was already on the ground,” he observes, by the time he could pick his best sites. Boxler’s crew knows the difference between good and bad botrytis, he assured me, yet even so, each carried a second bucket into which to drop any fruit about which uncertainty remained, and those lots were subjected to test pressings and severe scrutiny, generally ending up discarded. Boxler’s best 2007s are predictably finer, more structured, and more refined, although the vintage’s superiority is only obvious when it comes to single-vineyard bottlings. “I could live with a vintage like it every year,” he quips. When asked about his aspirations and his role in upholding the reputation of his family’s extraordinary estate, Jean Boxler says he does not want to get any bigger so as to keep complete control, and adds that he doesn’t have a single day free from his vineyards and cellar to go out and sell wine anywhere, so Americans should please not feel offended that he hasn’t – save for a brief, youthful stage in Oregon – ever visited them! Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185