2006 Rudesheimer Berg Schlossberg Riesling

The 2006 Rudesheimer Berg Schlossberg Riesling trocken offers a very different personality from its Berg stable mates – or rather, it takes some of the same themes and develops them to dramatically different effect. This has the creamy opulence as well as sheer intensity of apricot, pungent grapefruit, and minerals, but with just enough residual sugar to support them relatively heat-free, and without a dominance of the fruit pits over the fruit. No question the enormous concentration results in an unusually voluminous, aggressive and pithy Riesling but it is not ungainly, and I would be willing to bet on its evolution over at least the next 5-7 years. Heinrich Breuer and Hermann Schmoranz began their Riesling harvest October 6, and finished in record time. Selective picking and watchful decantation and selection of the musts, rather than the use of treatments, was the approach taken here to the problematic health and botrytis of the vintage. The results included a 40% reduction in volume over their recent average. Imported by Classical Wines, Seattle, WA; tel. (206) 547-0255