Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese, Mosel, Germany

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Like its Josephshofer counterpart, there are only around 80 liters of the Kesselstatt 2010 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese and it was picked out meticulously through almost the entire period of harvest. Scents of toasted hazelnut, fresh radish, lemon rind, honey, and peach preserves prepare the way for a correspondingly diverse palate performance rich and viscous; nearly weightlessly buoyant; as well as sharp and practically electric. Where many a powerful nobly sweet 2010 comes off as unruly in its resemblance to Eiswein, here one has the impression of a great, ennobled T.B.A. to which Eiswein has been added as a super-charging agent. Pungent smokiness and brown spices, herbal extracts, and salivary gland-tugging salinity all add to the almost head-spinningly intense interactivity of this elixir’s profoundly protracted finish. This will probably leave one in a daze on any occasion over the next 50 years, though I suspect that the view from its peak will be yet more glorious for being more perspicuous. There is a superfluity of practically over-energized elements here that need to seek their most stable orbits.Annegret Reh and vineyard manager-cellarmaster Wolfgang Mertes have turned in a 2010 collection reduced in volume (unusually, I tasted it in its entirety) but of impressively consistent excellence, with welcome clarity and focus as well as relatively low-alcohol balance at its drier end. Here is one estate where a direct comparison is possible and the Saar and Ruwer generated more excitement than the Middle Mosel. “What really proved valuable this year,” notes Reh, “was de-leafing” to enhance ventilation, which manifestly didn’t handicap the wines in terms of ripeness. As is typically the case here, too, the wings were often cut off of the clusters, although given the tiny 2010 crop that wasn’t necessary in all parcels. Picking for the top dry wines took place within a fairly narrow window near the end of October – botrytis being carefully eliminated; skin contact being extended; and selected musts being double-salt de-acidified – and they were bottled in July. This geographically wide-ranging and terroir-blessed estate continues to chart a unique stylistic course, in particular with wines labeled “Kabinett” tending increasingly toward very discretely-integrated “hidden” sweetness that renders them extremely versatile at table but in striking contrast to most Mosel wines so-labeled, which tend toward extremely low alcohol and pronounced sweetness, not to mention in contrast with the majority of German Riesling as a whole, which remains fashionably legally trocken.Various importers including P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424

The 2007 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese – which, like other nobly sweet von Kesselstatt wines, has a numerical nickname (“#27,” not that anyone is likely to suppose there were two otherwise eponymous TBAs) – is redolent of peach preserves, dates, and dark honey, caramel, with overtones of wood smoke and candied citrus zest forming a pungent aromatic wreath around its opulent fruit. Here is another example at this estate of sweetness that seems to be smothering some potential complexity, and there is an element of sheer brown sugar to accompany honey and fruit preserves in the finish. There isn’t much energy or any interplay of flavors here, but given that this viscous elixir isn’t merely static but monumental, it’s risky to attempt to speak of what might be in 15-20 years. In any event, I am sure this will be more than merely alive in 50 years, indeed, this wine is all about the future, so if you are young enough and wealthy enough (full bottles sold for 700 Euros, the highest price bit on any lot at the September, 2009 VDP auction in Trier), then go for it!A protracted harvest is almost bound to be especially beneficial for an estate with such enormous and widely-scattered vine acreage as that of von Kesselstatt. The acidity in this year’s collection is almost uniformly ripe, and often noticeably low. As usual, a certain austerity accrues to a fair share of Kesslestatt’s many trocken Rieslings (wines from whose labels the last vestiges of Pradikat designations have now disappeared), but happily, alcoholic heat was scarcely a problem here this year. Interestingly, the Saar wines among these were generally especially successful regardless of style. Annegret Reh’s plan in the Kabinett segment, incidentally, is to eventually eliminate the redundancy of having both feinherb (successors to former halbtrocken) and unabashedly sweet bottlings from a single site, but instead work in the direction of merely discreet – i.e. feinherb – sweetness for most of the estate’s Kabinetts. In a sweet style, the Kesselstatt Kabinetts have consistently represented excellent values with ready market-availability, whereas few of the drier Kabinetts (and virtually none of the estate’s trocken Rieslings) seem to make it to the U.S.Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel (918) 622-0424.

The Kesselstatt 2006 Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese is another nobly sweet wine with a nickname (-#27-) and described as -long gold capsule,- but needless to say there is only one such T.B.A. in this collection! Here we have a practically smarting smoky pungency and assault of high-toned esters on the nose, as if to signal a sort of radioactive presence of botrytis. Peach preserves in an eszencia-like viscous yet light-to-the-touch and (thanks to high acids) not cloyingly sweet palate presentation lend an ethereal aspect. But I find that suggestions of candied sweet potato, brown spices, caramel, and dusty, faintly fungal notes lend an earth-bound character to the finish, which comes off as heavier than the initial sense of palate weight led me to anticipate. That said, it's such early days for this wine that any judgment must be hedged. Suffice it to say I would love to have revisited this (even after a few months rest from bottling); I can imagine it being a 50 or more year wine; but I suspect it will never share the purity and levity of the greatest 2006s. Tasted literally off the bottling line, the astonishingly intense and viscous 2006 Josephshofer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese - nickname, -#20- - presented a smarting, dusty overlay of botrytis, a desiccated fruit personality, and was overwhelmed by its sheer sweetness. In this awkward state, I refrained from attempting to rate it. The 2005 Kesselstatt T.B.A.s were last summer also rather amorphous and struggling under their sheer viscosity, sweetness, and dosage of sulfur. The estate picks their T.B.A.s at truly mind-boggling must weights, and these tend to ferment and evolve at a glacial pace, often only just meeting the minimum alcohol level required by law for -wine.- I often feel as though I can also only just manage to judge them as wine in their youth.-We organized early,- says Annegret Reh-Gartner, -and then harvested in two weeks what we usually harvest in four.- She felt her hand was forced on the Saar when many of their vineyards were hailed on September 30, but by the time the crew was mobilized the heavy rain of October 3 was upon them.Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424