Monzinger Halenberg, Riesling, Auslese, 2015
Sporting almost 50% botrytised, shrivelled grapes but none as dry as raisins, this has a beautiful exotic fruit cocktail nose that soars from the glass, tangerine, guava, orange and peach. Texturally lithe and lissom as it snakes its way across the palate, fluide and seamless. Frank told us this was picked at the same time as the TBA, which indicates the ripeness of fruit that made it into the blend. 18 people harvesting for two days and a mere 600 Litres of Auslese were produced! A stunner.
critic reviews
Picked around the same time as the corresponding Spätlese, this doesn’t try to compete, but instead goes its own creamy, soothing way with a watercolor-like wash of ripe white peach and strawberry, honeydew and lime transparent to cooling herbal essences and underlying wet stone. A glaze of quince jelly points to the presence of very refined noble rot. The long, mouthwatering, umami-rich finish displays hints of browned butter and caramel without giving up the cooling sense of green herbal concentration of the refreshing juiciness of honeydew and lime.