2016 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: Bottled as AP #1, the 2016 Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese is the highest predicate that has been produced chez Zilliken. Based on partly dried raisins (but almost no botrytis), this Auslese opens with a beautifully flinty, really deep and complex bouquet whose fruit expressions are nobly discreet and very elegant. Lush and nobly intense, the acidity—the highest of the vintage—is present but really fine and perfectly interwoven with the mineral-flavored fruit and immensely salty, tensioned finish. This is an impressive Riesling with a long and alluring finish. Tasted March 2018. - Stephan Reinhardt, Apr. 2018

Wine Spectator: Concentrated and intense, with a delicious showing of Bosc pear, mango and blood orange notes that zip across the palate. Features wonderful intensity of flavor yet remains balanced and lively, with a streak of mineral accenting the very long finish. Drink now through 2042. 100 cases made. - Juni 2018

Mosel Fine Wines: Harvested at 105° Oechsle, this develops a superbly juicy nose of pineapple, mango, quince and rhubarb. The wine is quite compact on the palate and delivers plenty of yellow juicy and honeyed fruits underlined by a nicely zesty acidity in the very long finish. The after-taste proves racy, making rich Auslese quite animating. This superb effort will need a good decade to reach its maturity. 2026-2046 - Juni 2017

Vinous: This sole Auslese bottling of the present Zilliken collection is dominated by white peach, quince, grapefruit and lime. Like several of its siblings, it is marked by both animatingly bright citricity and creaminess of texture – though here, at least in the wine’s youthful state, the two are a bit at odds with each other. Glycerol conveys an oily feel here as well, and the citrus elements turn zesty and candied in the finish, yet all without sacrificing primary juiciness. “We had as good as no botrytis,” noted Zilliken. “We’re talking here principally about perfectly healthy grapes that were lightly desiccated.” A half-bottle with a bit left in it that had been open for two months came amazingly close in quality to freshly opened one. “I’ve been following this open bottle with some surprise myself,” observed Zilliken, adding by way of explanation that there hasn’t been any point in serving the rest of it since the wine was immediately sold out and he doesn’t want to frustrate his clientele. Here’s a bottling with which one should be patient, though I seriously doubt that it will ever deliver quite the complexity or superb balance exhibited by its two Spätlese siblings. - David Schildknecht, März 2018