2009 Zeltinger Himmelreich Kabinett GrK

The Molitor 2009 Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett exudes bright lime, apple, and grapefruit with the pungency and piquancy of their rinds, offering a lively entertainment for all but the most jaded palate, with honeysuckle perfume wafting all the way through its succulent finish and vivid wet stone, as it were, beneath. Like Johannes Selbach (in a very different style), Molitor is demonstrating not only the sheer quality potential in the best portions of this least-celebrated of Zeltingen’s trio of Einzellagen, but also the proclivity of those sites to convey Kabinett-like elegance, lift, and refreshment even when the fruit ripens deep into Spatlese range. This should remain gorgeous for at least 12-15 years. Markus Molitor – for more details on whose vast acreage, mind-boggling multiplicity of bottlings, and highly distinctive methods and style consult my reports in issues 167 and 185 – faced an especially daunting conditions in vinifying his 2009 collection, inasmuch as the wholesale renovation of his cellars under the Wehlener Klosterberg ran into some engineering complications and consequent delays. The results show no signs of having suffered. “Where yields were high in 2009 there was the danger of stress, which you taste as un-ripeness, but where yields were low” which naturally includes his vineyards, “the vines stood up to the dry August and September and then you could harvest some terrific things past the middle of October. I’m extremely enthusiastic about the vintage, because the wines have this inner reductive potential. They have 100 (and more) Oechsle, 6.8 or 7 acid (i.e. not terribly high), but then they have pH values almost as low as we’ve ever encountered, lower than I could ever imagine” for wines this ripe and relatively low in total acidity. As a result, Molitor predicts unusual keeping powers for his 2009s (his wines have impressive track records in that regard anyway) and he thinks these wines’ chemistry caused the to tighten up more than usual after bottlings, which for all but the highest Oechsle among them took place only the week before I tasted in September. (The exceptions had then not yet been bottled.) In addition to the wines reviewed in this report, two further “three-star” Auslesen, a B.A. and two T.B.A.s – all of these representing wines featuring the two Sonnenuhr Einzellagen – were still fermenting and thus inaccessible. For explanation of the color-coding of Molitor’s labels to reflect their style, see my report in issue 187. In keeping with my usual convention, only where two wines here share the same site-designation and Pradikat have I included reference to A.P. #s, and although Molitor does not employ the terms “trocken,” “halbtrocken,” or “feinherb” on his labels, such instances of otherwise eponymous wines normally only arise here where one of them is dry-tasting and other off-dry or unabashedly sweet. Despite the few wines listed in the U.S. but Molitor’s importer (and thus paired with prices in my report), both of them have sought to assure me that a wider range is available to merchants who ask, and I find it hard to believe even in the present economic climate that a larger number of these distinctively delicious, and in many instances under-priced wines is not available stateside. As usual chez Molitor, with the exception of the lightest wines and an auction cuvee, none of the 2009s reviewed here will have gone on the market until December and some will not be released for another year or more. Importer: Schmitt Soehne, Millersville, MD; tel. 410 729 4083