2006 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese

The 2006 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese A.P.#20, an auction lot, leads with honey, vanilla, mango, lilac, baking spices, and licorice. Creamy, fructose- and glycerin-rich, given its high residual sugar, vanilla and licorice, this displays a confectionary cast. Delicacy and ravishing floral perfume and tropical fruits appear to have attached themselves to an unanticipated source of acidity in the finish, because a remarkable combination of penetration and seeming weightlessness is displayed. It is surely a “30+ year” wine. 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. Racy, fine, sleek, well defined and much more exciting that the Graacher Himmelreich. (JR)

The 2006 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese shows considerable fermentative overlay from yeast, CO2 and sulfur, so that it took some patience to coax it out from under. Pear, quince, gardenia and honey inform a creamy palate and wafting finish. This lacks the energy of the Himmelreich at present, but its combination of richness with delicacy and the purity of its finishing expression of ennobled fruit speak to a fine future, perhaps three decades or more. (There were two bottlings of this wine – one this year – of which I tasted the first, A.P. #16 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 Wine Advocate.October, 2008