2007 Wiltinger Braune Kupp Spatlese, Le Gallais

Apple and plum with their blossoms in the nose of the 2007 Wiltinger Braune Kupp Riesling Spatlese lead to a richly-fruited palate tinged with cyanic bitterness of pits and pips. The texture here is seductively creamy and a marvelous sense of delicacy leads to a caressing yet refreshing and enticingly lip-smacking finish, with subtle, savory salinity. As often seems to be the case, this wine from the Le Gallais holdings (co-extensive with the monopole Braune Kupp) – and bearing the corresponding label –easily holds its own in the company of the better-known Rieslings of the Scharzhofberg, and I would expect it to age nicely for at least 20 years. Egon Muller compares his 2007s with the wines of 1997, which here displayed exceptional purity and advanced, largely noble rot-free ripeness, although the total number of bottlings in 2007 was significantly smaller, and the number of Auslesen alone this year three times greater. (I missed tasting one Spatlese, A.P. #6 that sold out early on, and I have not yet tasted this year’s Trockenbeerenauslese, which hadn’t even finished fermenting on the occasion when I tasted Muller’s other 2007s.) Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY (212) 355 0700