2006 TBA #6 Grande Cuvee Nouvelle Vague

The 2006 #6 Grande Cuvee Trockenbeerenauslese Nouvelle Vague exhibits Kracher’s patented blend of Chardonnay and Welschriesling and its ability to combine creamy richness with bright refreshment. This is also one of the spiciest Grand Cuvees I can recall, suggesting ginger, black pepper, and orange zest on the nose, which carry over with tactile pungency to an apple jelly, pineapple, and nougat concentrate on the palate. Salted caramel, butterscotch, citrus oils, and honey collaborate for a long, refined, and surprisingly invigorating and refreshing finish. 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