2006 Bernkasteler Badstube Beerenauslese

The Prum 2006 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Beerenauslese is, as already noted, the first of its kind. Cherry jam and grapefruit marmalade, mango and peach preserves, as well as floral and herbal distillates are suggested by the intensely ester-rich aroma. White raisin mingles with the confectionary fruit elements on the palate, which on the one hand displays remarkable density and considerable sheer viscosity; but on the other hand is supremely elegant and buoyant, traits perfectly reflected in its wafting length. All the way through this collection, in fact, neither clarity nor delicacy has been significantly sacrificed as we climb from one degree of botrytization to another. Every element of these grapes, including their acidity, was obviously concentrated with the minimum imaginable disruption or blemish. (In addition, Beerenauslesen, and Trockenbeerenauslesen were bottled here from each of Graacher Himmelreich and WehlenerSonnenuhr in this vintage. I also did not have occasion to taste the Prum 2006 Auslese from the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr.) 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

The Prum 2006 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Beerenauslese is, as already noted, the first of its kind. Cherry jam and grapefruit marmalade, mango and peach preserves, as well as floral and herbal distillates are suggested by the intensely ester-rich aroma. White raisin mingles with the confectionary fruit elements on the palate, which on the one hand displays remarkable density and considerable sheer viscosity; but on the other hand is supremely elegant and buoyant, traits perfectly reflected in its wafting length. All the way through this collection, in fact, neither clarity nor delicacy has been significantly sacrificed as we climb from one degree of botrytization to another. Every element of these grapes, including their acidity, was obviously concentrated with the minimum imaginable disruption or blemish. (In addition, Beerenauslesen, and Trockenbeerenauslesen were bottled here from each of Graacher Himmelreich and WehlenerSonnenuhr in this vintage. I also did not have occasion to taste the Prum 2006 Auslese from the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr.) Oct 2008, www.robertparker.com