2008 Erdener Pralat Auslese Goldkapsel 30

Representing for the most part the bottom half cut away from each of the best bunches, mingling noble botrytis and green golden berries, the Loosen 2008 Erdener Pralat Riesling Auslese gold capsule pours forth quince preserves, tangerine cream, distilled herbal essences, sassafras tea, caramel, and honey, combining enormous richness with near weightless buoyancy; uncannily persistent citric refreshment; and a striking sense of saline and stony mineral underpinnings you would seldom expect at this level of ripeness and degree of opulence. It should justify 30-40 years of cellaring. Ernst Loosen insists he aims to observe an upper limit of 12.5% alcohol for his trocken bottlings, a level that one might have expected was easily achievable in 2008; but in fact, a portion of this vintage’s collection comes close to transgressing it. When it comes to residually sweet Kabinett – a genre in which Loosen has long excelled – his frequently-voiced concerns that “the real thing” was becoming almost impossible (or at least, impossibly expensive) to achieve nowadays certainly do not apply to the 2008 vintage, when his collection of Kabinetts is not only superb, but also lively and feather-light. Indeed, the whole 2008 Loosen Oeuvre – while consisting of fewer wines than usual, with its nobly sweet selections even more (and more spectacularly) focused than usual on Pralat – is superb. What’s more, even cellarmaster Bernard Schug voiced his amazement at just how little sweetness most of the residually sweet wines display. Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255