2009 Saarburger Rausch Auslese

Picked largely near the beginning of the harvest – at the same time when botrytis berries were being selected for this year's T.B.A. – Zilliken's 2009 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese (an auction lot, and the A.P. #3, though that information is not necessary to pick it out, since there is only one non-gold capsule Auslese this vintage) features grilled pineapple, fresh lemon, and candied grapefruit rind, its bittersweet personality already anticipated by zesty, smoky aromatic pungency. Honey along with hints of caramel, butterscotch, and white raisin mingle with prickly pineapple and subtly biting citrus rind, and this is as creamy as it is blade-like in acid cut, yet somehow the effect is invigorating and dazzling, not inharmonious. You don't even think about the sweetness from this wine's 120 grams residual sugar when it's in your mouth. Its sense of sheer density and penetrating sharpness of acid dominates in the finish, and I would give this a decade to ripen before broaching the first cork. There is 30-40 year potential here, I suspect. Hanno and daughter Dorothee Zilliken have reorganized and renamed much of their wine portfolio to conform to the prevailing – or at least, the officially professed – and allegedly Burgundian three-tier model of the VDP, whereby, inter alia, names of "grand crus" (such as in this instance Rausch) appear only on the labels of highly selected wines, which this year include for the first time here a Grosses Gewachs. Put another way, fans of Zilliken wines who prefer – or can only afford – to purchase wines at the lower range of the Oechsle spectrum will henceforth be drinking considerable amounts of Saarburger Rausch that is no longer labeled as such. The overall share of legally trocken wine at this address has been considerably extended, and as the Zillikens pointed out, despite recession, their wines – including the least expensive among them – have never sold out more quickly than they did this year, one in which the family's relatively small volume of residually sweet wine approaches stellar qualities. The harvest here lasted the second half of October and Dorothee Zilliken reported being quite relieved to have finished in view of early November rains, though these did not deter – or perhaps didn't so greatly affect – many of her neighbors, who stretched things out. Hanno Zilliken opined that "after the middle of October" – with no foliage left on the vines – "no more assimilation was possible; and after the rain in November the sugars would have been washed out." In consequence – and in a departure from usual practice – the Zillikens left no grapes hanging for Eiswein. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463

Smoky, exciting nose. Very light with somehow a streak of dryness! Very appetising and confident and really a very good price. Not an obvious Auslese because of the acidity and lightness of touch. (JR)