2005 Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg Trockenbeerenauslese

Representing a mere 100 liters, the 2005 Maximin Grunhauser Abstberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese offers an esterous, slightly volatile nose featuring peach and lemon oil, a super-concentrated palate impression of inscrutably dense citrus and pit fruit essence, and a finish full of distilled fruits, flowers and herbs, powerful citrus, and honey. A hint of caramelization and brown sugar also becomes evident as the wine uncoils. You need hours – and perhaps decades – to take the full measure of such a wine, whereas today’s assessment must reflect its utterly embryonic and certainly less than cuddly state. I think there has been nothing comparable in concentration to this at Grunhaus since the Abtsberg B.A. and T.B.A. of 1995. Stefan Kraml met me well before eight o’clock on a mid-August morning with an air of quiet confidence and near nonchalance that tipped me off to what would follow: a display of Grunhaus quality such as practically went without saying a decade or more ago. He and owner Carl von Schubert have regained their footing, despite a year in which what von Schubert described as nature’s eventual “turbo-autumn” was preceded by severe hail and an unprecedented tornado that felled 200-year-old trees and a portion of the vineyard walls – to say nothing of the toll it took on vines! The harvest began October 10 and – like many a successful one this year – was finished in a mere two action-packed weeks. Up to the level of B.A., incidentally, all of the wines fermented spontaneously. Also recommended: 2005 Maximin Grunhauser Herrenberg Riesling Spatlese feinherb (unknown; 84+?). Importer: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424