2006 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese

The Prum 2006 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese is seductively scented with gardenia, hyacinth, and musky exotic flowers that remind me of stepping into a greenhouse. These are backed by very ripe pear and nectarine, while notes of botrytis spice also nip at the nose. A soothing, polished, enveloping, sweet and strikingly delicate palate gives equal representation to ripe, subtly-dried fruit, sweet floral inner-mouth perfume and spices. As usual at this address, retained CO2 and efficacious ripe acidity keep the long finish lively, enhancing its wafting sense of near-weightlessness. I suspect one could be happy following this for 30 or more years. (There were two bottlings of this wine – one this year – of which I tasted the first, A.P. #12 07.) The Prums picked Wehlen and Zeltingen first, while the Graacher Himmelreich resisted botrytis to a greater degree, and by the time they came to Bernkastel (shades of the scenario at Selbach) botrytis was so advanced that they ended up vinifying their first-ever Beerenauslese from those sites. “From the standpoint of quantity, it was a catastrophe,” says Manfred Prum, but he judges this likely the greatest vintage of his lifetime, yet also as a vintage that is open and accessible early. I therefore had the opportunity to taste a wider range of young nobly sweet wines here than normal, although I was not able to re-taste them after bottling. There is in fact very little to taste at this estate from 2006 other than nobly sweet wine. Miniscule amounts of “normal” Spatlese (which I did not taste) were bottled from the Himmelreich and Sonnenuhr. Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424 and Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463

Note that, as usual, this producer is one vintage behind everyone else. Still quite stinky though much richer and more flattering than the Spätlese. (JR)