2009 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Großes Gewächs

"In the past," explains Hanno Zilliken by way of introducing his estate's 2009 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Grosses Gewachs, "we bottled a dry Spatlese or Auslese trocken. But that usually came about by our having tasted through the cellar, whereby casks that had fermented to dryness and whose taste appealed to us were bottled dry. In this instance, we targeted in the vineyard very ripe golden bunches, and if there was a botrytis berry on the bunch it was plucked out. Then we went a step further. We pressed immediately, as usual, but retained only the free run juice for this Grosses Gewachs. We used a completely neutral cultured yeast strain," he adds about the contents of a single 3,000 liter cask, "because otherwise the danger is too great that the wine gets hung up and we wanted insurance that it would go to Trockenheit" (a frequent, if debatable, precaution taken by growers in this situation). The wine was then blended with a small amount of another lot to bring its finished alcohol down to 12.5%, a level the Zillikens had determined they did not wish to exceed. Kirsch and poire distillates; lime and grapefruit peel; and smoky, faintly fusil, ashen crushed stone notes frequently associated with Rausch make for a penetrating aromatic display. Firm, full, and undeniably formidable on the palate with a rather static reprise of those elements that informed the nose, this finishes with considerable bitterness of citrus oil and fruit pit, as well as persistently pungent minerality, slightly austere, brusque, and clenched. After following the wine for several hours, I didn't find much charm or saliva-inducement here, nor feel compelled, save out of professional duty, to take the next sip. (With an off-dry counterpart dubbed "Diabas" – see my review of that wine – it was another matter. But I really wish I could have reported a less marked contrast between those two wines, because under the circumstances, partisans of Grosses Gewachs and of dryness for Trockenheit's sake are bound to suspect that my assessments were prejudiced by my own ideological proclivities!) While it represents new territory chez Zilliken and is thus without a track record, I suspect that this bottling will be best drunk over the next 5-7 years. Hanno and daughter Dorothee Zilliken have reorganized and renamed much of their wine portfolio to conform to the prevailing – or at least, the officially professed – and allegedly Burgundian three-tier model of the VDP, whereby, inter alia, names of "grand crus" (such as in this instance Rausch) appear only on the labels of highly selected wines, which this year include for the first time here a Grosses Gewachs. Put another way, fans of Zilliken wines who prefer – or can only afford – to purchase wines at the lower range of the Oechsle spectrum will henceforth be drinking considerable amounts of Saarburger Rausch that is no longer labeled as such. The overall share of legally trocken wine at this address has been considerably extended, and as the Zillikens pointed out, despite recession, their wines – including the least expensive among them – have never sold out more quickly than they did this year, one in which the family's relatively small volume of residually sweet wine approaches stellar qualities. The harvest here lasted the second half of October and Dorothee Zilliken reported being quite relieved to have finished in view of early November rains, though these did not deter – or perhaps didn't so greatly affect – many of her neighbors, who stretched things out. Hanno Zilliken opined that "after the middle of October" – with no foliage left on the vines – "no more assimilation was possible; and after the rain in November the sugars would have been washed out." In consequence – and in a departure from usual practice – the Zillikens left no grapes hanging for Eiswein. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463