2007 Weingut Prinz Hallgartener Jungfer Riesling Auslese

Picked in many sites throughout the second half of October and first days of November, and combining wizened botrytis berries with simply over-ripe ones, Prinz’s 2007 Hallgartener Jungfer Riesling Auslese nicely reflects this approach in its sense of layering dried, preserved, and fresh pit fruits, as well as in its combination of creamy richness with bright refreshment. Soothing, polished, and loaded with quince paste, fig, and honey, it introduces brown spices, caramel, pungent smokiness, and a hint of white raisin into an already multi-layered finish. “In a way, you’re trying to trick nature with a wine like this,” says Prinz, referring to the broad window of place and time in which it was collected. But one could just as well argue that the result is a clearer picture of what nature offered in this vintage than would result from fruit selected solely under the aspect of botrytis (or some other). This should be worth following for at least 20 years, but its great advantage is to have such a light, refreshing, juicy personality that it will encourage consumption and bring enormous pleasure early. Even in high-elevation, breezy Hallgarten, and given almost six weeks to harvest, to hear Fred Prinz tell it, getting healthy, truly ripe fruit in 2007 represented intensive labor and strategy. The tartness and green herbal character of his (as usual, machine-harvested) basic dry Riesling betrays some drawbacks of early picking, but Prinz needed a good volume of clean, well-concentrated, healthy fruit, and that he certainly achieved. Imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463; also imported by Magellan Wines, Centennial, CO tel. 720-272-6544