Battenfeld-Spanier’s 2011 Hohen-Sulzer Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs is scented with coriander and marjoram, lemon and apple. Firm and full on the palate, it displays a relative sense of opacity and diffusion when compared with its immediate stable mates. Humus and tobacco lend a metaphorically dark note while herbal pungency, apple, black pepper and lemon zest all carry with impressive tenacity – just not much sheer juiciness or engagement of the salivary glands. Perhaps I saw this at an awkward moment. I won’t attempt for now to prognosticate as to its bottle evolution. Oliver Spanier (for an account of his methods and still internationally little-known sites, consult especially my issue 185 report) began picking on September 20, 2011 and didn’t finish until November 2 (in his Am Schwarzen Herrgott parcel), an indication of the micro-climatic, topographical and geological diversity among his sites in three communes. That it was necessary to cull botrytis this year is evidenced in an unprecedented set of brilliantly successful nobly sweet wines from this normally trocken-only estate. (Mea Culpa: Somehow, I let Spanier omit pouring me samples of this year’s Eisbach Riesling or his and Gillot’s 2010 CO Riesling – always late-released – without my realizing the omissions and asking that they be remedied.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799
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