2011 Wiltinger Braune Kupp Spatlese, Le Gallais

Yeastiness of freshly baked bread mingles with purple plum and intimations of sea breeze and brown spices in the nose of Muller’s Le Gallais 2011 Wiltinger Braune Kupp Riesling Spatlese, anticipating the winsome combination of fresh pit fruit, botrytis spice and savory mineral elements that flood a delicate, subtly creamy, lusciously juicy plate. A suggestion of Persian melon further points toward the extreme ripeness on display, but that doesn’t in the least disturb the impressions of levity or vivacity with which one comes away. The interactive intricacy and animation here are striking, and the impingements of plum skin, plum pit, brown spices, and salt lend invigoration and saliva-inducement to a lingering finish. This sole non-auction Le Gallais bottling of its vintage will be pure pleasure as well as hugely fascinating to follow through at least 2035. Egon Muller’s 2011 collection – tasted last September at the Scharzhof in his absence – represents an intensively selective harvest that extended from mid-October into November and resulted in one of the numerically smallest number of individual bottlings in the history of this venerable estate smaller even than the number from 20100, but also some that will go down as landmarks in that history. It seems that – by way of explaining this paucity – in the realm of Kabinett and Spatlese, the individual lots were simply deemed to harmonize well with one another and amalgamated; while in upper-Pradikat realms, the aggregate volume was no larger than in other recent vintages. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700