2006 TBA #11 Welschriesling ZDS

The 2006 #7 Welschriesling Trockenbeerenauslese Zwischen den Seen is one of the more delicate wines in this tasting. Banana, caramel, honey and chamomile notes are given an extra degree of brightness by the floral overtones that run through the wine. With time in the glass, hints of white peach and pear appear, adding to the sense of lift. There is a lot to like, but my impression is that the 2006 will drink better earlier rather than late. The #7 is 100% Welschriesling that was aged entirely in stainless steel. Residual sugar is 206 grams per liter.

The green-gold-glinting 2006 #7 Welschriesling Trockenbeerenauslese Zwischen den Seen is another of Kracher’s testimonies to the potential of that ubiquitous and much unloved Central European grape variety. Scents of grilled pineapple, passion fruit, spruce resin, and browned sugar lead to a thickly-rich yet invigoratingly pungent and resinous palate, and the hugely-honeyed finish pulls up just short of becoming cloying. I would plan on revisiting this in several years. It will certainly be capable of holding up to a decade of cellaring, though whether any complexities gained will justify that, only time can tell us. Long-time readers know that I can be hard on Kracher’s Traminer TBAs because this naturally low-acid grape has trouble dealing with the huge levels of residual sugar they impose on it. The 2006s were the last wines Alois “Luis” Kracher lived to vinify, and his son Gerhard – who with his grandfather Alois will continue to manage the estate – brought them to completion. Vintages for nobly sweet wine in the Neusiedlersee’s Seewinkel district can generally be divided between those in which botrytis comes early (such as 2005 and – with a vengeance – 2007); those when it is late (like 2004); and those when it comes not at all (which – as witness 2003 – does entirely rule out the production of BA or TBA from shriveled grapes). In 2006, by contrast, there was beautiful botrytis early, late, and in-between, permitting the Krachers to harvest from mid-October to December. The dozen 2006 TBAs bottled here will doubtless be worthily compared to the 15, by now near-legendary, TBAs of 1995 – the first such extended, numbered series, from a vintage in which Alois Kracher found himself confronted with almost nothing but TBA. In 2006, a number of Auslesen were also bottled (a tradition Kracher revived in 2003), most of which were reviewed in issue 177. Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700