2010 Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese GK 12

Musk melon, peach, candied orange rind, and narcissus in the nose of the Fritz Haag 2009 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Auslese Gold Capsule A.P. #12 signify another wine in this collection whose expression of ennobled ripeness is distinctly intriguing in its decadence. Opulent and glycerin-rich, this tends toward a bittersweet, marmalade and confitured peach palate impression. There is welcome interest and contrast by way of a wet stone undertone, but the wine’s utter sweetness needs time to integrate. That said, the sheer persistence here is in itself formidable and I have little doubt that this will be worth following for three decades. “You had to wait to pick,” comments Oliver Haag picked, “but not too late. Because after the end of October we had more rain, and by then the stems weren’t just ripe but just about shot (fertig), so that the grapes were literally hanging by a thin thread.” Different degrees of double-salt de-acidification were essayed (always on must), frequently only on certain lots of an eventual blend; but of the unabashedly residually sweet bottlings, Haag insists that only the Kabinett reflected a significant degree of de-acidification. Haag in my view quite correctly characterizes his generic bottlings as most illustrative of the vintage’s challenges and his selectively-picked residually sweet wines as being above-average ... “average” at this address, of course, having over the past several decades designated a very high quality indeed. “There were a lot of tough decisions to be made this year,” he relates. “Should we harvest this parcel or that? Pick now or later?” I share Haag’s opinion that as a group these wines will need longer than usual in bottle to really show their stuff. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. ( 800) 596-9463