除了我沒嘗過的一升瓶的酒之外，Selbach-Oster 2010 年份 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling trocken 是該廠該年份 Riesling 干白的唯一合法代表酒款。酒中帶有多汁清新的蘋果味，還伴有蘋果仁的明顯苦味，含有碎石和木質煙熏的地域味道，使酒更加簡樸，但仍清爽提神，這款味道持久，略顯尖刺的 Riesling 含有 12% 的酒精，再過十年品質會更加出色。

After the string of remarkable successes that Johannes Selbach has scored with block-pickings from this particular parcel it’s perhaps not surprising both that he essayed this year a dry version – 2009 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling trocken Schmitt – and that, warming up to his narration, he now refers to “this parcel behind the church and above the cemetery” where his father, Hans Selbach is buried as “the best in the Schlossberg if not at our estate. Papa – who had plenty of experience and was no follower of trends –used to say ‘you all go on about terroir; then you make three passes on the vineyards carrying three buckets, selecting with fancy finger work, then afterwards you say “so, that’s how the vineyard tastes.” Not a bit true! If you want the taste of terroir, keep your fingers out of it and pick everything en bloc.’” Not that this product of a November 18 picking is an exercise in methode ancienne, though, because Selbach decided to vinify both this and his “Anrecht” bottling from the Himmelreich entirely in stainless steel – a treatment generally accorded to at most a handful of chosen wines each vintage; the rest receiving at least in part a traditional fuder-elevage. His notion was that this might permit a clearer look at their terroir character. Grapefruit, quince, mirabelle, nut oils, wet stone, green tea, shrimp shell reduction, and smoky suggestions of peat and smoldering embers inform an intriguing nose and a densely-layered, silken-textured palate. This finishes in myriad registers, powerful yet focused and saliva-inducing. As it opens, it continues to display a greater sense of interactive complexity. Not only does this crave air, it also demands attention. Follow it and be fascinated for the next dozen 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

Site-typical ashen and peaty notes in the nose of Selbach-Oster’s 2009 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling trocken have their counterpart in smoky and crushed stone suggestions on its silken-textured, apply and lemony palate. A saliva-inducing salinity helps keep this strongly mineral-toned and adamantly dry bottling from becoming austere. This is remarkably buoyant for a wine of 12.5% alcohol. “12.5%, can that be?” asks even its author in genuine surprise as he picks up the bottle and reminds himself! I would anticipate 8-10 years of admirable service here, having long experience with the dry Selbach Rieslings from this site in vintages generous as well as challenging. I did not taste a corresponding Kabinett that was slow to ferment; not yet bottled when I visited in September; and subscribed (by a Norwegian importer) down to the last liter. “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

The 2005 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling trocken – a relative heavyweight Mosel at 12.5% alcohol – displays baked apple and site-typical charred, smoky aromas. Brothy, rich, and full, suggesting wet stones, charred wood, and toasted nuts in the mouth, this also delivers loads of juicy, clear citrus fruit. A solid, palpably extract-rich finish of liquid slate, nuts, and citrus manages not to betray its alcohol. This can be enjoyed anytime over the next decade. The dry wines here are receiving a few hours of skin contact to give them more buffering, and picking and vinification are done with an eye to not exceed 12.5% alcohol and become excessively voluminous or warm. That approach certainly succeeded here. As a negative demonstration, a 2005 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese trocken – the first of its kind that I have tasted chez Selbach and weighing in at 13.5 alcohol on account of the sheer ripeness of this year's raw material – proved to be superfluously voluminous and warm, the only Selbach wine of the vintage that I judged unsuccessful. “For me, 2005 is a singular vintage in my career,” says Johannes Selbach, “in that it is ripe, multi-faceted, and has excellent acidity. You can pick any of the other recent classics – 1975, 1990 ... . Each of the benchmark years is great in its way, however here you have a combination that is fun to drink now, ten years from now, and in thirty years as well. It remains to be seen, but I think 2005 is in another league.” Readers will indeed be hard pressed this year to find another address with this many consistently outstanding wines, and when has there ever been a more diverse and at the same time magnificent array of Auslesen? In their upper reaches, the Selbach 2005s seem – like Zilliken's, but in their own unique way – to chart a trajectory beyond the normal course for their vintage. The harvest here extended from mid-October to mid-November.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300