2010 Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese

Mint and fennel in the nose of Loosen’s 2010 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese make for a metaphorically cooling impression that belies the wine’s high ripeness and botrytis component as well as standing in stark contrast to the estate’s other two (“regular”) Auslesen from this vintage. This comes to the palate with a sheer juiciness and bright citricity that also set it apart from its immediate siblings, lusciously suggesting strawberry preserves mingled with lemon and herbs as well as a welcome, savory salinity. What’s more, there is a sense of wet stone that helps set-off the fruit-herb melange in a lingering finish. This ought to show well for at least a quarter century. Cellarmaster Bernhard Schug offers an unadorned impression of the travails of 2010, in which he extensively double-salt de-acidified his musts. “This was especially necessary for the dry wines,” he points out, adding “I’m frankly surprised that those turned out as well as they did. The most stressful aspect of the harvest is that we waited for gradual diminution of acids and additional ripeness in flavor until we couldn’t wait any longer, and then it was a real rush to pick. It was an agitated, tension-filled autumn, and that is the way the wines turned out, too. We could have de-acidified another gram or so and ended up with an acid profile like that of 2009, but this would have been a mistake and have sacrificed the individuality of the vintage.” While Erni Loosen remains a staunch defender of residually sweet, delicate Mosel Kabinett as a category, his 2010s unfortunately underscore the challenges to achieving consistent success with this genre in an era when even in this, the rainiest growing season in nearly a quarter century, must weights galloped. It was with joy and relief that I began tasting the series of residually sweet Spatlesen from this collection, because what went before – with three exceptions – was frankly disappointing. Loosen has elected to henceforth accentuate the difference between Spatlese and Auslese by incorporating in the latter category, as Schug puts it, “more botrytis than we would have had in an Auslese three years ago.” (For the 2010s, that meant around one-third of the fruit.) The corollary of this – which has the desired result of simplifying the portfolio – is that with the exception of Pralat there is not, and will likely also not be in future, any gold capsule Auslese. Interestingly – though this can certainly be a matter of caprice and luck – only one of the wines in this year’s collection displayed any “Mosel stink” from fermentative residues or reductive reaction with the dose of sulfur applied at bottling, even though this phenomenon can often be a short-term annoyance with the odd Loosen bottling and was encountered quite often in other Mosel collections of the 2010 vintage. (If I could explain the phenomenon in question more adequately chemically, I would be only too glad to publish that explanation; but extended correspondence with scientific specialists has thus-far proved far from decisive.) Importer: Loosen Bros. USA Ltd. Oregon City; tel. 503-984-3041

Mint and fennel in the nose of Loosen’s 2010 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese make for a metaphorically cooling impression that belies the wine’s high ripeness and botrytis component as well as standing in stark contrast to the estate’s other two (“regular”) Auslesen from this vintage. This comes to the palate with a sheer juiciness and bright citricity that also set it apart from its immediate siblings, lusciously suggesting strawberry preserves mingled with lemon and herbs as well as a welcome, savory salinity. What’s more, there is a sense of wet stone that helps set-off the fruit-herb melange in a lingering finish. This ought to show well for at least a quarter century. Apr 2012, www.robertparker.com