The fruit for a 2004 Bacharacher Kloster Furstental Riesling Eiswein was picked – not December 21, as was nearly universally the case this year – but rather the majority on January 3, and the rest not until an improbably late February 28. The Kloster Furstental is the site from which the Ratzenbergers harvest healthy, high-acid grapes for their often outstanding Sekt, and of which they then routinely leave a portion hanging for Eiswein. A piquant, salty, radish-like note on the nose mingles with aromas of mango, yellow plum, pink grapefruit, and Chartreuse-like floral and herbal distillates. Plums, tropical fruits, and mint-laced pink grapefruit fill the mouth. This exhibits a combination of delicacy, lightness and lift as well as enticing juicy ripe citrus on the one hand and tropical fruits, plum paste, nut oils, and honeyed richness on the other. It seems as though one can distinguish the two harvests – the second of which, Ratzenberger Jr. acknowledges, “did not taste very Eiswein-like” – as they intertwine. The long, billowing, refined finish does not fail to include distinctively mineral components. This level of quality for an Eiswein picked so late is rare in my experience and an Eiswein this thoroughly delicious and ingratiating in its first year (to say nothing of immediately after bottling) is also remarkable. In six or eight years, Ratzenberger and I predict it will have become even more interesting and delicious. The Jochen Ratzenbergers – father and son – seldom fear letting the acidity of their Rieslings hang out, and they also craft wines that often need a couple of year’s bottle age to blossom, so my verdict on their 2004s may well require upgrading. Acid levels in the grapes stayed high, but Jochen Ratzenberger Jr. reports that the estate has never experienced such unprovoked precipitation of tartrates as this year, which significantly diminished the finished acids.Importer: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ tel 856-608-9644