Erdener Treppchen TBA Goldkap, Weingut Dr. Hermann 2018

AP: 21 19. The 2018er Erdener Treppchen Riesling TBA GK was made from fully botrytized berries harvested at a full 200° Oechsle in the prime (“dark red”) Kriebslay, Hödlay and Busslay sectors of the vineyard, and was fermented down to fully noble-sweet levels of residual sugar. It offers a superb nose of baked pineapple, barbeque herbs, raisin and almond cream. The wine is hugely oily and very sweet on the delicately honeyed palate and leaves a superbly creamy feel of dried fruits and cream in the long and suave finish. This big TBA will need some patience for the sweetness to recede but the after-taste already hints at its underlying multi-layered complexity. 2038-2088

From the Hödlay and Kriebslay plots that also made up the Auslese, Christian Hermann's intensely golden-yellow colored 2018 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese (Gold Capsule) was still a bit volatile initially when I tasted it a week after the bottling in late July this year. However, clarity, concentration and freshness are spectacular on both the nose and palate after a while in the glass and days in the uncorked bottle. Featuring rich and oily consistency, the wine has remarkable finesse and freshness, and everything is highly refined and stimulatingly piquant. A very concentrated elixir made with grapes that were picked at 200° Oechsle and bottled with 360 grams per liter of residual sugar, this Treppchen TBA is terribly sweet but rarely is it as light-footed, elegant and digestible as here. This is a spectacular effort, but wine collectors should be patient: this TBA will gain in complexity over the years in the bottle. 6% alcohol. Total acidity: 11.2 grams per liter. 2030-2080