2000 Ungsteiner Herrenberg Scheurebe Auslese

Doris Eymael thought they would have to cart her directly from the vineyards to the hospital last fall. The estate was desperate for pickers and every friend, customer and family member available was pressed into long, stressful hours of service. "You could have earned a few bottles of wine if you'd been there," she said with a wan smile. The effort paid off handsomely. A couple of the drier wines went in a rather austere direction, with somewhat detached lemony acids and peach kernel bitterness, in part ameliorated by creamy textures and sheer density. But once one enters the realm of residual sugar, this collection finds its consistent and mellifluous voice, blending sweetly with the botrytis where called upon. As a matter of fact, no other estate captured the noble side of 2000 vintage botrytis with such consistency. (Rudi Wiest)