2010 Winninger Rottgen Auslese

The merely 8% alcohol Knebel 2010 Winninger Rottgen Riesling Auslese doesn't display the knittedness or vibrancy of its Kabinett and Spatlese siblings. Viscous and creamy as well as strikingly buoyant, its impression of white peach syrup is not yet entirely reconciled to bright fresh lemon and lime. Yet even with these reservations, the sheer penetration and persistence of this Auslese - not to mention its near-weightlessness - are already memorable. I would give it a decade in the cellar before even revisiting and imagine it will be good for two or three. The Knebels commenced their 2010 harvest in mid-October but picked through the first week of November. They report having not adjusted acidity, but instead they let most of their non-sweet wines proceed through malo-lactic transformation - which in many instances lasted through summer - often with profound effect. Must weights were universally high, a phenomenon accentuated by the prevalence of botrytis. Aside from some of the nobly sweet entries, none of this year's single-vineyard offerings were bottled until the third week in August (before which they remained on their full lees), so it should be born in mind that I tasted most of them less than three weeks later. The line-up here this year is abbreviated not only on account of sheer paucity of juice but also of the Knebels' intention to in general begin offering slightly fewer and more simply-labeled wines. At the time of my September visit, two Trockenbeerenauslesen in their glass demijohns were still fermenting with painful slowness in the corner of the Knebel's tasting parlor: a 2010 Rottgen, and the more concentrated of two Rottgen T.B.A.s left from 2009. A 2010 Uhlen T.B.A. from bottle was impressively buoyant and persistent, but too aromatically struck-down by its sulfur to properly assess. Importer:Mosel Wine Merchant (various importers); tel. (413) 429-6176; dm@moselwinemerchant.com , also Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463