2008 Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese GK

Kirsch; almond and pistachio extract; and anisette liqueur rise from the glass of Fritz Haag 2008 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule A.P. #9, joining forces with singed pineapple, peach, and quince jelly on a creamy palate. Caramel and honey overlay the intensely ripe fruit for an impression of gaudy richness and extravagance unusual for the vintage. That noted, this finishes with a levity and elegance that is very much 2008, even if without the interactive complexity of this year’s A.P. #10. One wonders what would have resulted if the botrytis had been left in the “regular” Sonnenuhr Auslesen. This harbors very high acidity, although you would not guess that from its taste, and these acids may act as a spring to lend future energy and insure stamina. No doubt this is worthy of cellaring for 30 or more years. Oliver Haag began picking already before the mid-point of October, but the results testify to his having had fully ripe grapes. “We did a lot of leaf-pulling and an extensive pre-harvest thinning this year,” he points out, adding that “the Auslesen were picked largely at the end of October, not too late. One picking was intended for Beerenauslese, but it didn’t appeal to me for that character, considering what good wines we have had in recent years, so I declassified that fruit into gold capsule Auslese.” Haag has this year dropped the Pradikat designations from all of his dry-tasting wines (and “Juffer” from what used to be "Juffer Kabinett"), while bottled his Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr-Sonnenuhr trocken as Grosses Gewachs. The idea is not only to simplify and to create a convention that non-Pradikat wines taste dry or nearly-so, but also to return to something more like the labeling that prevailed before 1971. But putting the words “Erste Lage” on the label of wines from the Sonnenuhr – in keeping with a VDP-wide program – actually adds further impetus to fatuous consumer questions. As all close students and lovers of Burgundy know, the words “premier cru” on a label mean increasingly little, and the best sites or portions of sites nowadays achieve their price and due reverence regardless of whether the label indicates “premier cru.” Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. 800 596 9463.