2011 Karthauserhofberg Grosses Gewachs

Besides being fuller-bodied (at just shy of 13% alcohol) than its dry predecessors in Tyrell’s vintage collection, the 2011 Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Riesling Grosses Gewachs also reflects a very different family of fruit flavors, headlined by lusciously ripe pear with honeydew and musk melons that put one in mind of sweetness even though the wine harbors just 8 grams of residual sugar. Unsurprisingly, given these impressions, one notes that the acidity is lower here than in those predecessors. Alkaline and piquant pear pip notes serve for counterpoint on a polished palate and in a soothing, modestly persistent though not especially refreshing or at all interactive finish. I suspect this will be best drunk by 2015. Christoph Tyrell and cellarmaster-vineyard manager Christian Vogt’s team began picking astonishingly early in 2011: September 5th for Pinot Blanc and the 13th for Riesling, finishing up already on October 18. Vogt notes that this year he let residual sugar approach the legal limit in the estate’s trocken offerings, in an effort to moderate their levels of alcohol. Fortunately, the acidity of the botrytis-free Karthauserhof 2011s – though analytically relatively low – proved efficacious, thus helping preserve a dry taste among wines that harbored judicious residual sugar. Legally dry wines have always been Tyrells’ personal preference and consequently a category on which he places special emphasis. If the material that informs such wines were to lack purity or focus, it would be immediately evident. But it must be said that much of what underlay this year’s off-dry and residually sweet Karthauserhof bottlings was manifestly less pristine or potentially intriguing, a fact that is not hidden by their residual sugar. This year’s array of separate Auslese bottlings is even more numerous than that of the past two vintages. “Some years,” explains Vogt, “we’re of the opinion that there aren’t any great differences from one lot of Auslese to another and we bottle them blended together. But with these 2011s, we were convinced that each was distinct in character.” A similar opinion no doubt underlies the present collection’s unprecedentedly numerous B.A.s and T.B.A.s. As Vogt points out, “Even from the analyses you can see that each one of them represents a step up in concentration,” but he adds that the estate’s 200th anniversary of (Leornardy-Rautenstrauch-Tyrell) family ownership was also an influential factor. Even more astonishing to me than their sheer numbers is the fact that all of these B.A.s and T.B.A.s were bottled already in February following the vintage, which I suspect is also without precedent. (Twenty-five liters of T.B.A. from the same must that informed this year’s auction-bound “Nr. 51” represented the sole hold-out, and were still fermenting as of last autumn.) Importers: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463 (though only through vintage 2011), Winesellers, Ltd., Niles, IL; tel. (847) 647-1100

Apricot pit and lemon blossom on the nose. Light and refreshing but nonetheless dense, offering crisp peachy fruit lifted by vibrant acidity. Just plain fun to drink. (JP)

Quite closed, delicate notes of exotic fruit. On the palate the fruit is more local, apple and pear, with an almost rasping lemony acidity. Finishes with a tang of fresh apple peel. Definitely racy, quite long. (MS)