2011 Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese

Honey and salted caramel mingle with strawberry preserves on the nose and creamy palate of Loosen’s 2011 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese, representing a direct and obvious extension of his two 2011 Wurzgarten Spatlesen. With sweetness a bit stickier here than in those Spatlesen, it is a good thing that cooling suggestions of herbal concentrates and lime sorbet help keep the wine subtly refreshing. While this just misses the layered complexity, primary juiciness and focus of the gold capsule Spatlese, it manages by its extra measure of richness and honeyed botrytis character to differentiate itself as “true” Auslese by Loosen and Schug’s definition, and it may well acquire additional allure in the course of the next couple of decades. “This is harvested quite late,” notes Schug, “by which time it was pretty hard to find any healthy fruit, and you have instead 85-90% botrytis.” “It’s really quite simple,” opined cellarmaster Bernhard Schug, “2010: not much (wine); high acids; ‘complicated’ vintage. 2011: good volume; acids normal, sometimes too little; no problems. But I taste some wines with problems this year. Where did they come from? People were overwhelmed and stressed by the volume. But from the standpoint of cellar technique this was an easy year provided you were organized. There was a danger with high yields that you could get thin wines. To counteract that it was important to leave them on the fine lees as long as possible,” and in fact, only one of the single vineyard trocken wines – which I have not had a chance to revisit since – had been bottled as of my visit last September. Kabinett bottlings this year perpetuate an estate trend, about which I have repeatedly written, toward lowering their residual sugar; though it must be said that 40-50 grams in the context of 2011 fruit generosity and low acidity comes off as decidedly sweet. This Loosen collection is especially successful in light of weaknesses I perceived in wines of other top-notch growers in Erden and Urzig where so many of this estate’s vineyards are located. Picking began already on September 22, but Schug hastens to assure me that his pace soon slackened noticeably in view of the continuing positive evolution of the fruit through early October. “It’s important to realize,” insists Schug, “that you can have almost any kind of weather all summer long – provided it doesn’t just rain continually, or hit the upper thirties (100+F.) for a week or more – because photosynthesis is guaranteed, whereas the quality difference is always going to be made by good weather in September and October.” Importer: Loosen Bros. USA Ltd. Oregon City, OR; tel. (503) 984-3041