Clemens Busch Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Beerenauslese Falkenlay

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The Busch 2011 Pundericher Marienburg Falkenlay Riesling Beerenauslese features overripe musk melon allied to caramel in an overridingly sweet and diffuse performance, finishing with honey and white raisin persistent but sticky and prompting skepticism on my part as to whether this will ever become notably more interesting or refined. though it might well live for two decades. For its aggregate of quality and quantity, insists Clemens Busch, 2011 was about as good as he’s ever gotten, even allowing for crop lost to downy mildew, to the late August hail storm, and to the consequent need to eliminate some early, negative botrytis. But he readily admits that the thin-skinned berries wouldn’t have held out more than a few additional days if the September rains hadn’t stopped. While a bit of wine was harvested already in the first days of October, he reports that the weather turned so warm he declared a week-long moratorium on picking. That, he says, was the second existentially critical point in this vintage’s history, because had the October heat continued, it, too, would have spoiled success. That there was considerable botrytis is testified to by this year’s range of ennoble bottlings – largely late-picked, and even those gold capsule designated approaching 200 liters each – and is probably connected with Busch’s organic and biodynamic vineyard regimen. For whatever reason, notes Busch, botrytis-affected musts this year seldom exhibited enhanced acidity; and that proved, to my palate, a handicap for some of them. Picking continued until November 20, which is about as late as any German grower was still at it in 2011. Passive lees contact, Busch opines, was key to providing needed structure and flavor definition to wines from this vintage’s high-sugar, relatively low-acid musts from thin-skinned berries, and I can only add that it almost surely helped in buffering the several bottlings that strayed into 14% alcohol territory. Most of the Busch 2011s were not bottled before mid-summer, and high-sugar musts were still fermenting or had only just ceased fermenting last September and were not to be bottled until after the harvest or possibly even after the new year, so that among dry-tasting single vineyard wines I could not taste Fahrlay-Terrassen, Felsenterrasse or Raffes. (By the same token, I report below on a couple of 2010s that had not yet been amenable to assessment when I reported on the bulk of Busch’s 2010s in issue 199.) Busch has acquired the excellent former local Lenz-Dahm cellar, where his stocks will henceforth be more adequately accommodated than they were in warehouse-like conditions, but vinification will continue to take place at the familiar home venue. As part of the deal, yet more vineyards were acquired, reinforcing what is now Busch’s overwhelming dominance of the Marienburg. As he never tires of pointing out, other growers could have made something of their precious legacy but found the rigor of farming such steep, terraced sites – effectively accessible from the village only by boat – too onerous; and sold-out to him over the years. Both Busch sons have become increasingly involved in their parents’ labors in recent years, the elder having focused on the evolution of the estate’s biodynamic regimen, and currently embarked on an extended work-residence in France.Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191

Like its immediate Fahrlay sibling, almost weightlessly buoyant and barely-wine at 6% alcohol, a Busch 2010 Pundericher Marienburg Falkenlay Riesling Beerenauslese generates a vibrantly tingling, invigorating impression with its combination of lemon zest, apricot skin, cinnamon, and candied ginger in a luscious yet bright matrix of grapefruit and white peach. This sappy, energetic elixir is slightly jumpier and less refined than its Fahrlay counterpart and temporarily slightly inhibited by its dosage of sulfur. But it is amazingly, almost electrically persistent. I would expect three or four glorious decades but strongly advise restraint for the first couple! In contrast with most of his Riesling-growing countrymen, Clemens Busch claims that despite the vicissitudes of vintage 2010 and a harvest that lasted through the third week in November his (as always organically-raised) fruit was largely botrytis-free and amounted to a volume only 20% below long-term norms. What’s more, he claims to have harvested scarcely any (save botrytized) grapes at more than a high but manageable 11 grams of acidity and with a good 50% of that being tartaric. Of course, for wines to undergo malo-lactic transformation is not in the least unusual at this address and that was the case once again this year. But virtually all of Busch’s wines had finished both primary and malo-lactic fermentation (in some cases simultaneously – which he prefers – in others sequentially) by June, which is early for his estate. (Exception: one of three Trockenbeerenauslesen was still fermenting and had only reached 3.5% alcohol when I visited in September.) Low sulfur elevage with long lees contact is also normal here, but Busch believes that was especially critical for quality in 2010, guaranteeing that the wines would not harden and that healthy lees would perform a fining and imperfection-healing role such as he claims was taken for granted by Mosel growers two or three generations ago. Careful canopy management, notes Busch, was also critical to 2010 success as a condition for being able to sufficiently postpone picking. This year’s as usual long line-up, incidentally, should not be permitted to deceive: while there are many residually sweet wines in this latest collection, they make up only around 20% by volume of the estate’s 2010 crop. Busch testifies that there is quite a scramble now among young Punderich growers to get a toehold in the Marienburg’s steep slopes that he has in the meantime gone a considerable way toward monopolizing. “The fact is,” he points out, “that at least in their father’s generation such growers’ families had ample opportunity to rescue and cherish these steep slate slopes, but often instead heeded the call of fashion and invested in Dornfelder on the flat side of the river.”Mosel Wine Merchant (various importers); tel. (413) 429-6176; dm@moselwinemerchant.com ; +49 (0) 6742 8980 50; also imported by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312

Malt, honey, and apricot paste dominate the nose and palate of Busch’s 2007 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Beerenauslese Falkenlay. A bitter hint of apricot kernel and fresh lemon citricity on the palate keep the sweetness in check and generate a lot of vigor which – along with the wine’s sheer viscosity – engenders and Eszencia-like impression. And like young Eszencia, this lacks nuance and is somewhat undifferentiated today. Instead, it is “merely” stunning as a sort of broad outline. Plan on waiting for a decade to even revisit this, and then follow for a further decade. 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

The 2006 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Beerenauslese Falkenlay inhabits another world from the corresponding Fahrlay. Here we have advanced caramelization (even singing) and obvious desiccation, with over-ripeness of pear and peach coating the palate along with honey and brown spices. Amazingly far-gone ripeness, shriveling and botrytization, and sheer viscosity do not preclude elegance and lift, a phenomenon many true believers in Mosel terroir will hasten to attribute to the effects of blue slate. The Fahrlay is a good bit more exciting today, but don’t count the Falkenlay out in a fifty year foot race. Clemens Busch farms the steep slopes of the once-famous Pundericher Marienburg on the Lower Mosel entirely organically, which make him unique in the region and a source of wonder for his fellow vintners. Most of his top wines are labeled with their old pre-1971 site names. (Increasingly many growers are managing to get away with this.) Busch has been bottling nobly sweet Riesling since 1999, but never before – he hastens to inform me – in quantities remotely like those that nature imposed on him in 2006: Nine Auslesen, three Beerenauslesen, and a T.B.A.! Like Reinhard Lowenstein (and in a similar style), Busch is best-known inside Germany for his dry (or near-dry) single-site wines, which are not released for more than a year after harvest. (In fact, most of the 2006s had not finished fermenting yet when I visited last summer.)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