2018 Markus Molitor Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Beerenauslese Goldkapsel*

As one might anticipate from Molitor’s designating a Beerenauslese as merely “one-star,” he considers this the least from among seven, only two of which had even been bottled as of my late November 2019 visit. And this libation’s mere 6.5% alcohol means that Molitor did not wait in hope of further fermentation once it had crossed the threshold of legal vinosity. Pear nectar and jelly, poached white peach in syrup, marzipan, caramel and honey are all evoked on the nose – accompanied by prickly botrytis manifestations suggesting lemon peel, wood smoke and raw ginger – and then inform a glossy, viscous palate. Like its "three-star" Auslese counterpart, this is very prominently sweet, but its prodigiously persistent and multifaceted finish doesn’t flirt with stickiness to the same degree as that sibling’s, thanks to an influx of fresh peach and tangy pineapple, to tongue-tingling licks of cinnamon stick and crystallized ginger, and to a mouthwatering salinity such as was strangely absent elsewhere in this Molitor collection.