Cider and brown spices recur as major themes Busch’s 2006 Pundericher Marienburg Riesling Auslese Fass 40, but before I could worry about a certain degree of monotony creeping into these expressions of 2006 botrytis, it became evident that this wine returns to clarity, brightness, and to a complex expression of minerals that the previously-tasted Auslesen lacked. The finish is unencumbered by the wine’s high residual sugar; as penetrating as it is rich; and as indubitably marked by slate as it is by botrytis. I am sure its true complexity will only be revealed in 8-10 years and that it will evolve interestingly for at least 20, but on purity of botrtyis, clarity, and structure alone this takes high marks already. Interestingly, it came from those young vines in the Noar. 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