2010 Graacher Domprobst Auslese 10

A Schaefer auction lot, their 2010 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Auslese A.P. #4 was picked out contemporaneously with and in the same (“Nikolauslay”) section as the A.P. #10, but with a bit stricter selection for nobly-shriveled berries. The results are yet more overtly dense as well as evocative of dried fruits – apple, white raisin, prune – but also more severe in the brightness and penetration of citrus and gooseberry. In consequence, a certain bifurcation is evidenced, though that arguably adds to the invigoration of an impressively tenacious finish. “I grant that this is less harmonious than the #10,” says Christoph Schaefer. “But,” adds his father, “in offering this at auction we anticipate its being cellared for 20, 30, 40 years; whereas for the next ten years I too would prefer the #10. For now, #4 is perhaps too dense. I have to begin wondering whether I’ll live to see its full evolution.” You and me both, Willi! Personally, I don’t doubt that all four Schaefer 2011 Auslesen will be that long-lived, but my instincts and experience encourage me to bet most heavily on German Rieslings that are the most harmoniously complex and distinctive already in year one. Incidentally, I noted while transcribing these notes that this wine was listed at last September’s VDP auction as “gold capsule” (which has, I now gather, been the case with at least some past Schaefer auction Auslesen); but I have never heard Willi Schaefer describe any of his Auslesen in that way, whereas he has always been at pains to select his auction cuvees on the basis of distinctiveness, perceived aging potential, and smallness of lot, not ripeness; and where one does (as in this instance) represent an enhancement of ripeness and ennoblement vis-a-vis its immediate siblings, this has never struck me as categorical, but always as a matter of degree. “You had to keep delaying harvest,” says Christoph Schaefer, “but when it did come time, a significant share of the crop needed to be picked pretty quickly,” due to pressure from botrytis. Of course, when two experienced grower-owners have only ten – albeit extremely morsellated – acres to tend, 2010 challenges are a bit more manageable. “It was really important this year,” Schaefer junior continues, “to let the small amount of fruit that was still green hang, because such bunches were retarded in ripeness; high in malic acid; and would have been very noticeable in a blend.” “Even if you have only 10 or 20% of those sour grapes in the picking, you’ll never get that sour note out of the wine” adds Willi Schaefer, who is a champion in other contexts of including fresh green-gold grapes in one’s material, but suspects that failure to recognize the aforementioned danger was the cause of many a disappointing 2010. Notwithstanding – but also not contradicting – that opinion, as I noted in my introduction to this vintage, many Mosel growers observed not only higher concentration of total acidity in precisely their botrytized fruit but also the locking-in of more malic, and as my tasting notes demonstrate, the acids in some of the Schaefers’ most botrytized batches bordered on the obstreperous. “Only after fermentation – in which a significant (but variable) amount of acidity is lost anyway – can you really tell the structure of your wine,” insists Christoph Schaefer, “so what de-acidifying we did – largely in Q.b.A. and Kabinett – was as a correction to wine.” Willi Schaefer is keen to remind us that what tastes balanced is partly an imponderable function of terroir. “You’ll see that ten grams of finished acidity tastes well-integrated and -buffered in wine from one parcel, while a wine with approximately the same gross analysis from another parcel tastes sour. When I see bunches looking and tasting a certain way, and I know where they’re growing, then the analysis doesn’t interest me; I know the wine is going to turn out right.” You can taste that sort of confidence in a 2010 performance from Schaefers of unusual qualitative consistency, even if there will be differences of opinion as to the potential greatness of certain wines that are extreme in ways which would only in this vintage fail to elicit a gasp. “You can’t really say that earlier or later pickings were more successful this year,” adds Schaefer senior, but as at so many top Middle Mosel addresses this year, Spatlese and Auslese predominate, an outcome of which nobody even dreamt at the end of 2010’s rainy September. Only the heaviest lees were separated in January and the rest left in the wines until bottling, which (with the exception of this year’s tiny, sole trocken batch) took place a month later than usual in June. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300