2006 Graacher Himmelreich Auslese Goldkapsel

The Prum 2006 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule introduces a note of caramel, here with heady over-ripe pear, gardenia, and a Chartreuse-like aura of herbal and floral distillates. Amazingly honeyed and rich yet light to the touch, this is possibly a somewhat more obvious wine than the auction lot of Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese, but also a more concentrated as well as more botrytized one. Expect it to be worth cellaring for four decades. (This wine is A.P. #13.) The Prums picked Wehlen and Zeltingen first, while the Graacher Himmelreich resisted botrytis to a greater degree, and by the time they came to Bernkastel (shades of the scenario at Selbach) botrytis was so advanced that they ended up vinifying their first-ever Beerenauslese from those sites. “From the standpoint of quantity, it was a catastrophe,” says Manfred Prum, but he judges this likely the greatest vintage of his lifetime, yet also as a vintage that is open and accessible early. I therefore had the opportunity to taste a wider range of young nobly sweet wines here than normal, although I was not able to re-taste them after bottling. There is in fact very little to taste at this estate from 2006 other than nobly sweet wine. Miniscule amounts of “normal” Spatlese (which I did not taste) were bottled from the Himmelreich and Sonnenuhr. Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424 and Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463