2010 Erdener Pralat Auslese Goldkapsel

In keeping with this estate’s drive for a simpler portfolio of more decisively distinct bottlings, there is no “regular” Auslese counterpart to Loosen’s 2010 Erdener Pralat Riesling Auslese gold capsule. Candied lemon, orange liqueur and honeysuckle in the nose are reinforced on the buoyant palate by a creamy texture and high residual sugar, yet also mingled with fresh citrus and cooling green herbal essences. Pungency of citrus rind and brown spices as well as a hint of white raisin emerge in the luxuriantly yet vibrantly long finish to remind one of the botrytis presence, but this handsome offering is very much in keeping with the move that Loosen and Schug have made in recent years toward less gaudy and opulent expressions of Pralat and toward greater elegance and retention of fresh fruitedness. I would anticipate at least 30 years of delight. Cellarmaster Bernhard Schug offers an unadorned impression of the travails of 2010, in which he extensively double-salt de-acidified his musts. “This was especially necessary for the dry wines,” he points out, adding “I’m frankly surprised that those turned out as well as they did. The most stressful aspect of the harvest is that we waited for gradual diminution of acids and additional ripeness in flavor until we couldn’t wait any longer, and then it was a real rush to pick. It was an agitated, tension-filled autumn, and that is the way the wines turned out, too. We could have de-acidified another gram or so and ended up with an acid profile like that of 2009, but this would have been a mistake and have sacrificed the individuality of the vintage.” While Erni Loosen remains a staunch defender of residually sweet, delicate Mosel Kabinett as a category, his 2010s unfortunately underscore the challenges to achieving consistent success with this genre in an era when even in this, the rainiest growing season in nearly a quarter century, must weights galloped. It was with joy and relief that I began tasting the series of residually sweet Spatlesen from this collection, because what went before – with three exceptions – was frankly disappointing. Loosen has elected to henceforth accentuate the difference between Spatlese and Auslese by incorporating in the latter category, as Schug puts it, “more botrytis than we would have had in an Auslese three years ago.” (For the 2010s, that meant around one-third of the fruit.) The corollary of this – which has the desired result of simplifying the portfolio – is that with the exception of Pralat there is not, and will likely also not be in future, any gold capsule Auslese. Interestingly – though this can certainly be a matter of caprice and luck – only one of the wines in this year’s collection displayed any “Mosel stink” from fermentative residues or reductive reaction with the dose of sulfur applied at bottling, even though this phenomenon can often be a short-term annoyance with the odd Loosen bottling and was encountered quite often in other Mosel collections of the 2010 vintage. (If I could explain the phenomenon in question more adequately chemically, I would be only too glad to publish that explanation; but extended correspondence with scientific specialists has thus-far proved far from decisive.) Importer: Loosen Bros. USA Ltd. Oregon City; tel. 503-984-3041