2011 Riesling Oestricher Lenchen Auslese

This estate has always posed a conundrum. While the simply dry and noble late-harvest rieslings have always been first-rate, Peter Jakob Kuhn's "natural" style for the single-vineyard dry wines is, to put it mildly, highly idiosyncratic. Wild yeasts, low sulfur levels and the brave use of malolactic fermentation for riesling put the Nikolaus, Doosberg and Schlehdorn bottlings on a different, almost unchartered trajectory. He now releases them a year later, but it was only at a vertical tasting of his two main sites earlier this year that I saw how gracefully this style could mature. Still, they will remain enigmatic for anyone who encounters them first while they are young. Also tasted: 2011 Riesling Trocken Jakobus (85), 2011 Riesling Trocken Rheinschiefer (87), 2011 Hallgartener Hendelberg Riesling Trocken (88), 2010 Mittelheimer Sankt Nikolaus Riesling Trocken (89), 2010 Oestricher Doosberg Riesling Trocken (91), 2010 Riesling Trocken Schlehdorn (92), 2011 Mittelheimer Sankt Nikolaus Riesling Auslese (92), 2011 Oestricher Lenchen Riesling Beerenauslese (93), 2011 Oestricher Lenchen Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese (93).