Selected-out from the same early picking that informed the corresponding gold capsule Auslese, the Diel 2009 Dorsheimer Goldloch Riesling Beerenauslese is confectionary in its sheer sweetness as well as its overall personality. Marzipan, sultanas, vanilla cream, caramel apple, peach preserves, and honey inform a rich, creamy plate. This is the most predictable as well as superficially the sweetest of the collection’s botrytis wines, but it offers an impressively long interchange of cinnamon and ginger spice with the aforementioned confectionary elements, and should be worth following for 30 or more years. Caroline Diel’s 2009 collection is noteworthy not only for a range of outstanding Riesling such as has long been anticipated (though seldom bettered) at this estate, but also for a set of wines from the Pinot family – all, incidentally, now labeled with French rather than German names for their varieties – that in my estimation mark a significant up-tick in quality. That this estate has been famous in Germany for its work with Pinots ever since Armin Diel assumed charge in 1987 and began barrique vinification, I am of course well aware. But only in recent years have I witnessed tendencies to restrain the influence of new wood and to encourage real subtlety, which seem to me prerequisites for achieving with these varieties anything remotely approaching the class of Schlossgut Diel’s Rieslings. The 2009 Pinots were harvested in mid-October and most of the Rieslings in the two weeks following. The superb botrytis selections were all picked-out ahead of even the Pinots. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300