A Kajo Christoffel 2010 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Beerenauslese delectably mingles strawberry preserves, honey, and salted caramel for a creamy, palpably dense, and expansive performance that is nonetheless informed by vintage-typical fresh citricity, albeit in a for now somewhat awkwardly detached way. This finishes with formidable persistence but a bifurcation that will hopefully diminish with time in bottle. Certainly the sheer stamina for four decades is present here.Veteran Karl-Josef “Kajo” Christoffel (for more about whose estate and methodology consult my report in issue 192) insists that one simply had to hold out for late-enough harvest in 2010 in order to render de-acidification unnecessary, though by that point, he concedes, a genuine Kabinett wasn’t possible. It would seem that Christoffel’s old and strategically-located vines were able to withstand botrytis is a way that those of many Urzig growers could not. His proclivity for alcoholic levity and tolerance for high residual sugar were intentionally accentuated this year, with most wines hovering close to a mere 7% alcohol. Christoffel bottled in early May, at most a week or two later than in a typical year, and given the penury of yields, there are fewer different bottlings than in a typical year. Readers should however bear in mind that this estate prides itself on its range of available mature wines, and some these 2010s might not reach the market until after 2012.Importers include Atlanta Improvement Co.; tel. (404) 876 4500, Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR; tel. 888 274 4312, Import A-N-T Wines, Venice, FL; tel. (941) 493 3000, Noble Wines Ltd., Seattle, WA; tel. (206) 326 5274