2005 Graacher Himmelreich Trockenbeerenauslese

Liqueur-like Persian and honeydew melons are studded with glazed pineapple, candied grapefruit peel and white raisin, as well as coolingly suffused with mint. The effect is aromatically heady, and the combination of viscosity and creaminess with delicacy and vibrancy on the palate is remarkable. The sensationally sustained, seamless finish introduces hints of caramel and hazelnut paste as well as a salinity that milks the salivary glands. My estimation of longevity may well prove laughably conservative. But few who are reading this in 2016 will live long enough to have that laugh, and how many of them will possess one of these bottled treasures? The Prüms not only hold their cards tightly when it comes to BA, TBA or Eiswein – and in some situations that’s because they prefer to follow a wine before deciding the Prädikat under which it will get bottled – but they also typically leave such wines in tank or glass for years, and seldom offer them for sale – whether at auction or directly – any sooner than 8 to 10 years after harvest. This Himmelreich TBA was only bottled in August 2016 and sold at that September’s VDP Grosser Ring auction in Trier. (In fact, due to the excitement surrounding vintage 2015, this was the sole pre-2015 wine at last year’s auction. There is a corresponding Wehlener Sonnenuhr that the Prüms have not yet released.)