Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenhuhr Riesling Beerenauslese, Mosel, Germany

澤巴赫塞爾廷日晷園雷司令逐粒精選甜白葡萄酒

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“A hunter-gatherer wine” in his words, Selbach’s 2010 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese took some time and exercise to accumulate, and I hope time reveals that it was worth doing. I have not tasted it since bottling. Dried apricot and fresh lemon set the somewhat sweet-sour tone for a wine that comes close to setting my teeth on edge with its severity of acids (analytically, around 15 grams). Brown sugar, browned butter, radish, lemon rind, and salt inform a dense but dynamic palate and a pungent, prickly, implacable, finish. Like this collection’s lesser Eiswein, this certainly gets your attention, and I find myself compelled to pay it more than grudging respect for sheer penetrating persistence and even complexity. Those with a gambling spirit are invited to see what this becomes, though I would anticipate very slow bottle evolution. “From the look of the grapes in early October,” relates Johannes Selbach, “it seemed we would have green, hard-edged wines this year. But the saving grace” – that three-word description spoken in English, incidentally – “was that if you waited, the weather cooperated just long enough, and eventually real ripeness and interesting aromas developed. At that point, we picked in a hurry, finishing in early November.” Reacting to the high-acid nature of 2010 material – much of it double-salt de-acidified as must – Selbach finished nearly all of his wines with significant residual sugar, and it was literally half by accident that any of these ended up with a profile that could be called “Kabinett.” Otherwise, this is a vintage dominated by sweet Spatlese and Auslese to an extent that in its relative stylistic homogeneity compels me to recollect my earliest experiences with this estate and the dominance in certain mid-’1980s vintages of off-dry Kabinett and Q.b.A.! The high ripeness and botrytized complexity that characterize this collection is reflected in the fact that the estate’s three by now familiar and no longer Pradikat-designated, block-picked parcel bottlings were served me after I had tasted the wines labeled “Auslese,” and there was not the least awkwardness to the transition (although for now this vintage looks to have rewarded selection at least marginally over block picking). “The two most unusual botrytis vintages of my career,” remarks Selbach, “have been 2006 and now 2010. But whereas the 2006s were opulent, 2010 delivered sleek, thoroughbred racehorses built for the long haul.” Hang on for a quite possibly wild ride, then, because as impressive as these wines are, just as Selbach intimated, they are highly unusual and their future track record correspondingly inscrutable. If 2009 was clearly a year for Schlossberg to shine, 2010 is a year of more predictable favoritism toward Zeltinger Sonnenuhr.Importers: There are a few regional importers of certain Selbach wines, but the majority (and those whose prices are noted above) are Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

A Selbach-Oster 2009 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Beerenauslese smells intriguingly and mouthwateringly of reduced veal stock, along with white truffles, quince jelly, and peach preserves. Chewy fruit skin, high-toned distilled pit fruit emanations, and piquancy of fruit pits add both layered and dynamic complexity to a palate of luscious concentration and indescribably – some might even opine oddly – savory, carnal, nobly fungal depth. Wet stone and invigorating salinity seem to shimmer through a transparent though dense curtain of fruit in a finish that will leave you scratching your head in wonder and salivating in anticipation of the next sip. I’d love to follow some of this for the next 30 or more years. “The autumn was super, with little stress,” remarked Johannes Selbach, who is more often seen furrowing his exceedingly high brow when describing even a highly successful harvest! What there was of botrytis, he reports, came late, and he reported that what rain there was in November was of negligible significance. Where many 2009 collections disappointed slightly as they reached the limits of possible vintage Oechsle, the Selbach-Oster collection proceeded from strength to profound strength. Most of the wines were bottled in May, but some of the dry and nobly sweet lots were very late even to finish fermenting and a few had not yet been bottled even when I tasted in September. True to an intention he stated last year, Selbach has bottled without Pradikat the fruits of block-pickings from his three top parcels, each named on its label. (For more about the principles involved, consult in particular my note on the 2005 “Schmitt” Auslese – in issue 169 – and that on this year’s dry “Schmitt” Spatlese below.) This year’s collection continues the trend for wines from Zeltingen’s Schlossberg to shine with special complexity and elegance after the many years in which they seemed destined at this address to take a back seat to those of Sonnenuhr. Not only were the vineyards of Zeltingen among the most celebrated on the Mosel during the 19th and early 20th century, but Karl Heinrich Koch epochal survey of 1881 places the Schlossberg as among the Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer’s top 11 sites, and one can appreciate this while savoring a wine like this year’s “Schmitt” trocken.Importers: There are a few regional importers of certain Selbach wines, but the majority (and those whose prices are noted above) are Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300