Saarburger Rausch, Riesling, Auslese, 2009

The Zilliken 2009 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese A.P. #5 of which there is half as much volume (around 330 cases) as of Kabinett and Spatlese represents a transition into botrytis-shriveled berries, here incorporating higher acidity to balance its higher residual sugar. Pear drops and their distilled counterpart; quince preserves and pink grapefruit; sea salt, kelp, and lobster shell reduction add up to an impression as intriguing as it is lusciously beguiling. Buoyant and caressing, persistent and saliva-inducing, this misses today quite the excitingly interactive complexity of its Spatlese counterpart, but you can expect to derive delight from bottles for 25-30 years, during which time I am sure there will be many days (and nights) when it awes. 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