2008 Saarburger Rausch Spatlese

Spicy, tangy aroma. I could almost find ginger in there. Stony too and still a bit of sulphur in evidence, making me cough and holding back the expression on the palate. Pretty sweet and a slightly dusty finish. (JH)

The Zilliken 2008 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spatlese A.P. #3 turns a sharp corner in ripeness from its predecessors, transporting the taster from northern orchards to tropical groves of grapefruit, mango, pineapple, and papaya. Atop that profusion of fruit wafts complimentarily sweet perfume of cherry blossom, lily, and heliotrope. Texturally, too, this marks a departure from the wines that preceded it in this year’s collection for its degree of flattering creaminess. But none of these differences prevent this Spatlese from exhibiting almost weightless buoyancy, ravishing refreshment, and a cool cantus firmus of wet slate. Furthermore, one can expect it to perform brilliantly for more than two decades. Hanno Zilliken and his daughter Dorothee – who is playing an every-increasing role here – now have a spacious and sophisticated new gravity-fed cuverie and reception area behind the family house and next to the deep, old barrel cellar, replacing the cramped facilities in which three generations have worked ever since the family’s original above-ground structure and everything around it were flattened by Allied bombs during the Second World War. Like a number of his neighbors, Zilliken – who compares 2008 with 1988 – began picking already in mid-October, but set a leisurely pace and did not finish for a month. “Time in cask was really critical for the evolution of the acids,” he says, and one perceives that particularly in his successful dry bottlings of the vintage. As my detailed notes explain, the longstanding traditional trio of Kabinetts at this address – one trocken from the Rausch and one each in identically high residual sugar style from the Bockstein and Rausch – has been expanded this year into a range at different levels of residual sugar. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463

Scented and for once this is a Spätlese that tastes almost like an Auslese (rather than vice versa which is the norm for 2008). Well done! So clean and pure. (JR)