2011 Lieser Niederberg Helden Beerenauslese

The Schloss Lieser 2011 Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Beerenauslese offers a wonderfully refined, buoyant and creamy mingling of vanilla, marzipan, quince jelly, honey, and white raisin, subtly intimated in the nose but then saturating the palate with enveloping, seamless richness. Hints of campfire smokiness, crystallized ginger and lemon rind prickle gesture toward the more rustic side of noble rot, but hardly manage to hinder this elixir from demonstrating the magically concentrating effects of which botrytis is capable. Look to follow this for more than three decades and to, in the process, take even more profound pleasure in its presence. Thomas Haag didn’t begin harvesting until October 3 – immediately before which, he says, it was too hot – and then picked for 23 straight days. He has every reason to complement the ripe yet filigree results, a description that, happily, applies almost as much to his dry as to his residually sweet bottlings. Except for his two Grosse Gewachs – bottled in May – and a Niederberg Helden T.B.A. that was still fermenting as of last autumn, all of Thomas Haag’s 2011s were bottled already in March and April following harvest. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463