2004 Kiedricher Grafenberg Trockenbeerenauslese

Picked in November and December, Weil’s 2004 Kiedricher Grafenberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese ended up being assembled from 25 tiny lots. The astounding aromas include the ocean, lobster reduction, veal demi glace, caramelized peach and quince preserves. Thick, dense and creamy in the mouth, it displays remarkably restrained sweetness and a wafting, delicate sense that is hard to describe. The palate is positively teeming with ocean-deep minerality and field-sized florality. This wine is one of those full immersion experiences from which your soul will emerge changed, if not saved. In the finish, there is an invigorating and animating juiciness and saltiness for all of the persistent parallel impression of creamy richness. One senses that the selection was so deft and the material available so perfect, that a certain number of still juicy, unraisined, green-golden berries could be retained. Wilhelm Weil insists that his 2004s are more consistently ripe than were his 2001s, since the accumulation of sugars this year was more gradual and there was not the extreme contrast presented by a cool, rainy September and a warm October of 2001. “Two thousand four, after all,” he says, “displays the classic virtues we theoretically ascribe to Riesling: long ripening, late harvest, and conditions on the climatic margins.” I found considerable qualitative variation this year, though, on account of factors other than sheer ripeness. That said, the outstanding 2004 Weil Rieslings – and these are in the clear majority – include some breathtaking successes. Furthermore, the quantities behind some of the most exciting of these are far larger than in any previous vintages of this estate. Imported by Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463