2005 TBA #3 Scheurebe ZDS

The deep amber-colored 2005 Trockenbeerenauslese No 9 Scheurebe Zwischen den Seen is part of the 2025 Library Release. It opens with an intense and elegant bouquet of mint and eucalyptus and balsamic as well as concentrated fruit aromas that intermingle with nougat and caramel but also saline notes. This is a very rich but pristine TBA that might not be the most complex sweet wine of the 2025 Library Release, but it is highly finessed, stimulating saline, fresh and the perfect expression of Scheurebe (a.k.a. Sämling 88 in Austria). This is a spellbinding fresh, lemony and delicate TBA in the classic Austrian style (no barriques but large oak casks or stainless steel). 7.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in Illmitz in June 2025.

The Kracher 2005 #4 Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese Zwischen den Seen displays a powerful nose of candied lemon and pineapple, sage flower, mint, musk, honey, and blackcurrant. With a citric brightness that suggest Riesling and a tactile spiciness that suggest Traminer, this searches one’s palate with hammer and tong. The finishing cling of sage and citrus oil, brown spices, and mint is resolutely complex as well as invigorating. This should be worth tracking for two decades. The inspiring and otherwise irrepressible Alois “Luis” Kracher died last December 5, after a nearly year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. His son Gerhard, 27, and still-active father will continue the work of this exemplary estate. Note: I tasted the Kracher wines of 2005 and 2006 for the reviews above this Spring, and the 2004s in late 2007 and again this Spring. Kracher was restrained in his early judgment of the challenging 2004 vintage, in which he could not start picking noble rot until November, and continued until Christmas. “The first selections were wonderful; the second passage classic, good; the third – kaput,” was how he described it. “From two months of work,” he continued, “we netted 6,000 liters of quality T.B.A.,” from which he promises a modest-sized collection so that – as he puts it – he wouldn’t have to apologize for a vintage that is good but not great. I don’t believe that this was a tactical confession on his part. Kracher was genuinely surprised by the quality that emerged as his 2004 collection evolved, and in the end, he bottled the same number of Trockenbeerenauslesen – ten – as in the manifestly more classic botrytis vintage of 2005. Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700