2008 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spatlese

Honeysuckle, heliotrope, narcissus, and buddleia lend a hauntingly bittersweet, musky bouquet to Prum 2008 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese, with apple, almond, vanilla, nut oils, and nips of zesty citrus peel and bitter fruit pit – along with persistent inner-mouth florality – informing a multi-faceted, buoyant palate. Like the corresponding Bernkasteler and other of this vintage’s best wines, this both sooths and refreshes, performing an enervating seduction whose finishing resonance will leave your tongue quivering. Bright acids and subtle impingement of CO2 are unmistakably part of the magic here, but the more the wine warms up, the more its creaminess of texture as well as its nutty depth and stony mineral underpinnings are evidenced. Expect three decades of fascination and sheer sensual self-indulgence from this beauty. The Prums compare 2008 with 2004 and as such consider it a classic Spatlese year, with thankfully with more wine in the Kabinett range that this estate has seen in many years. And if you remain unconvinced after tasting the present collection that residually sweet Kabinett Riesling is capable not only of reflecting the full potential of great Mosel vineyard sites but also capable of profundity and greatness per se, then you never will be. The above having been noted, the range of Auslesen here this year, while small, is extraordinary. The 2008 collection also includes January, 2009 Eiswein from the Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Himmelreich which I did not taste. As in past reports, it should be noted that while there are multiple bottlings of Prum Kabinetts or Spatlesen from a given vineyard in any given vintage, the estate is at pains to insist that the differences are minimal, and I am not privy to the A.P. #s of most non-auction bottlings that I taste there, nor would I pretend to the ability to unerringly match a wine sampled later from a labeled bottle with the specific lot I had tasted previously at the estate. Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. 918 622 0424 and Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463