The 2006 Gimmeldinger Schlossel Rieslaner Trockenbeerenauslese boasts an ethereal, intense nose of honey, lychee, brown spices, and floral distillates, with a smoky note that carries into a singed, caramelized peach character on an oily, rich, fiendishly spicy palate. Rieslaner is known for its acid retention, as well as for spontaneous shriveling but relative resistance to botrytis. In this instance, the acid retention is blatantly on exhibit in the form of a rampaging citricity, but the berries had completely succumbed to noble rot, and these two elements are far from resolved – in fact, neither is giving quarter. Without the rigorous strategy of green harvesting and selection put in place as a matter of course, it would have been impossible, Franzen assures me, to have harvested any truly noble sweet wine like this in 2006, and as it is, more than three quarters of the fruit left at the time these were harvested was cut to the ground.Muller-Catoir’s vineyards were twice ravaged by hail, so a small harvest was guaranteed even before the roller-coaster of 2006 temperatures and precipitation was taken into account. Martin Franzen followed the long-standing tradition at this address of labor-intensive green harvest, selectivity, and unwillingness to compromise, in this case in the face of rapidly encroaching botrytis that – as he readily admits – rapdily turned ignoble. The upshot is a largely successful collection, much-reduced number, generally late-assembled but early (March)-bottled.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300.