2012 Prager Riesling Weissenkirchen Wachstum Bodenstein Smaragd

The nose of Bodenstein’s 2012 Riesling Smaragd Wachstum Toni Bodenstein is utterly fascinating, though some may find it off-putting in its suggestion of butchered animal innards, musk, peat, as well as white peach and diverse citrus. The nearest analogy I can think of is to certain Jurancon. Salty and meaty savor on a polished palate runs all the way through a mouthwatering and mysteriously nuanced finish. This genetically-diverse planting in the upper reaches above Weissenkirchen – about which I have written more in several reports – is singular in its location, and here is an instantiation that displays correspondingly unique and unusual scents and flavors. There have been many instances amid these vines previous 15 dedicated bottlings when you had to shake your head in disbelief that not only father-in-law Franz Prager but a great many other experienced vintners told Toni Bodenstein that Riesling would be lucky to ripen in this nose-bleed site more than one year in ten. On this 2012 occasion, though, it can at least be said that the Wachstum is Bodenstein’s one Riesling to have finished closer to 13% than to 13.5% alcohol! Weissenkirchen, opines its mayor and most-famous vintner Toni Bodenstein, had luck in the lottery that determined whether in the generally dry growing season of 2012, enough rainfall occurred where you were to keep the vines steadily metabolizing. In apparent testimony to that luck, harvest here was finished already on the third of November with the picking of the Wachstum Toni Bodenstein Riesling. I did not have opportunity to taste the entire range of Prager 2012 Gruner Veltliners: there was so little wine (due largely to disrupted flowering of this variety) that they were sold out very quickly; several were not available stateside; and Bodenstein confesses to cellaring among them only his Achleiten bottlings – else, he notes, his library would grow cumbersomely large! Importer: Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620