2010 Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese GK

Assembled from pickings in three different upstream parcels near the Brauneberger Kammer, Oliver Haag’s 2010 Brauneberger Juffer Auslese Gold Capsule intriguingly evinces musk and white truffle, along with honey, grapefruit, peach, a piquant hint of walnut oil, and faintly prickly pungency. The palate impression follows suit, with walnut oil and rose radish in particular lending striking complexity to a luscious, glycerin-rich, and honey-glazed yet bright matrix of citrus and peach. The sense of palpable extract richness here is formidable, but not at the expense of levity; and for all of the wine’s sheer richness of fruit and its exotically musky, nobly fungal, and nutty accents, an amazing sense of focus is preserved in its sustained, vibrant finish. Invigorating hints of peach kernel and saliva-liberating salinity add further appeal of an Auslese that is surely destined for at least three decades of glory. “You had to wait to pick,” comments Oliver Haag picked, “but not too late. Because after the end of October we had more rain, and by then the stems weren’t just ripe but just about shot (fertig), so that the grapes were literally hanging by a thin thread.” Different degrees of double-salt de-acidification were essayed (always on must), frequently only on certain lots of an eventual blend; but of the unabashedly residually sweet bottlings, Haag insists that only the Kabinett reflected a significant degree of de-acidification. Haag in my view quite correctly characterizes his generic bottlings as most illustrative of the vintage’s challenges and his selectively-picked residually sweet wines as being above-average ... “average” at this address, of course, having over the past several decades designated a very high quality indeed. “There were a lot of tough decisions to be made this year,” he relates. “Should we harvest this parcel or that? Pick now or later?” I share Haag’s opinion that as a group these wines will need longer than usual in bottle to really show their stuff. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. ( 800) 596-9463