2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Eiswein

Loosen’s 2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Eiswein is remarkably delicate even in the context of this vintage. Room-filling scents of apple jelly, marzipan, heliotrope, and gardenia adumbrate the sweet, perfumed, jellied and confectionary character on the palate. Yet there is a juicy, fresh-fruited and lemony streak here that seeks to enliven and balance this plush Riesling. Still, confection is the dominant theme in its lingering finish, and the fresher components engender a somewhat sweet-sour bifurcation. This is remarkable for its heady ripeness and delicacy, and I could imagine it taking well to a decade’s aging. Despite slightly disappointing dry wines, and Kabinetts and nobly sweet wines that do not reach the heights established in those genres by this estate’s 2005s and 2006s respectively, Ernst Loosen and his cellar-master Bernard Schug have nonetheless scored considerable success in 2007, a vintage they describe as temperamentally between 2005 and 2004. As regards style and success rate, the comparison with 2004 seems about right to me. Harvest began already in the first week of October, but as usual at this address with its enormous acreage of top-notch vineyards, the early phase was taken up principally with highly selective picking for nobly sweet wine. “From the first day to the last,” comments Loosen, “each picker gets two tubs” for separating qualities of fruit. “And there were shriveled, TBA-quality grapes already on the first day this year,” adds Schug. Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255