Parker über:
Riesling Erdener Prälat Trockenbeerenauslese Lange Goldkapsel Alte Reben
Picked at the bottom of the cru for two weeks at the end of September and early October, the intensely golden yet vital-looking 2023 Erdener Prälat Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese Alte Reben (Long Gold Capsule) opens with a generous, very intense and smooth nose with tropical fruit aromas but also dates, smoked ham and hints of fresh toasted mocha beans. On the palate, this is a highly finessed and crystalline, stimulating saline and savory Prälat with an unrivalled freshness and crystal-clear precision. This finesse makes me speechless and the stimulating finish even more. The healthy berries were picked at 215° Oechsle, and the wine fermented to 340 grams per liter of residual sugar (and 6% stated alcohol). The acidity is precise and sharp like in a great Eiswein (19.5 grams per liter of total acidity). 50 liters were made. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 28 24 in January 2025.,,Christian Hermann said that he didn't always want to be portrayed as an outstanding sweet wine producer when he presented his current collection to me in mid-January, which included 35 wines. Among them were four amazing Pinot Noirs and 31 Rieslings, and among those six fruity sweet Kabinetts, four Spätlesen, 10 (!) Auslesen, one Eiswein (!) and believe it or not four (!!!!) Trockenbeerenauslesen (TBA). And not only that: the TBA quartet weighs in at 400 RP. Never before has a winery in Germany received the full 100 points four times from a single vintage, not even Markus Molitor. He had produced three 100-point Auslesen from the 2013 vintage, while the highly concentrated TBAs, which were also selected at the time, had (or still have) trouble achieving the required 5% alcohol over the years, as they are extremely rich. A few drops of it have been tasted but never rated. To do that, they would first have to be bottled. And now, the 400-point Hermann doesn't want to be referred to as sweet wine expert? As long as there is no better one, Christian Hermann will probably remain one—and after the publication of this report, probably for life. The Pinot Noirs, which are possibly among the most elegant, most sophisticated and juiciest in the Mosel, at least, and, to be honest, should not be missing from any cellar as long as prices are still so moderate, will not change that either. Even the dry grand crus won't save Hermann from going down in the annals of German wine as a sweet wine guru: there are only three GGs from 2023.,,If the laws of the market also apply to the Mosel (and not only to the Scharzhof on the Saar), the current wine prices of Dr Hermann will no longer be sustainable. And because the wine estate has just become the youngest VDP (Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates) member, the price development is likely to go through the roof despite the general reluctance to buy, starting with the Wine Paris event in February but also the latest: the ProWein in Düsseldorf. Those who already own these wines can consider themselves lucky, as can those who still find one or the other. But anyone who has had them by the glass will have to realize that hardly any price is too high. At most, perhaps, for what Christian Hermann and Manfred Prüm call “Trinkauslese,” In other words, light, delicate Auslese Rieslings without any botrytis that you simply drink very quickly and of which Christian Hermann produced no less than 14,000 bottles in 2023. Of course, the TBAs are a rarity here. You have to work hard for 100 points, and four 100 RPs even more so, because they don't just fall into your harvest basket. Nature rarely provides the raisins for these wines, and yet they have been sorted and weighed a few times. The quantity is correspondingly small, but the quality is correspondingly inimitable. Noble sweet wines of such precision, raciness and brightness are absolutely rare, even in Germany. This quartet is truly legendary, and we all should be grateful that we can buy them bottle by bottle and not in a wooden case named The Ultra-Limited 400 Parker Points TBA Quartet.
