The 2007 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule represents a relatively early picking (i.e. in this case late October) Busch did to cull botrytis, and another instance where the fruit (here pineapple and peach, predominantly) is swathed in caramel and honey. There is a vanilla cream element here as well, but for all of the wines opulence and sweetness, a lick of salt and squeeze of citrus help prevent it from becoming cloying. Here, too, a decade or more of positive evolution seems assured, but as to how much additional complexity will accrue to it, only time can tell. Clemens Busch – among the Mosel’s few organic vintners, and the undisputed champion of the Lower Mosel’s steep Pundericher Marienburg – is also rapidly demonstrating that he is simply one of the collective Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer’s exceptional talents, not to mention stylistically free spirits. Most of his top wines are labeled with their old pre-1971 site names. Nature thrust on him in 2006 an unprecedented 9 Auslesen (many distinguished only by number), 3 Beerenauslesen, and single T.B.A. (most of which were reviewed in issue 179). In 2007, an at least slightly more normal – not to mention more marketable – balance of dry-tasting (though not always legally trocken) wines was restored, but success, Busch insists, was possible only by dint of great patience and then, when the time was ripe for picking, in great haste. A considerable number of overtly nobly sweet wine was picked in the process, as there was no lack of botrytis in this fungicide-free zone.Mosel Wine Merchant selections (various importers), Trier, Gemany; fax 011 49 (0)651-14551 39; also imported by by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312