2015 Hugel Riesling Séléction des Grains Nobles ‘S’ (Pre-arrival)

“Luminous straw-gold. Classic aromas of apple jelly, crystallized mango, lemon curd, honey, sweet spices and powdered rock, plus a hint of white flowers. Less obviously vertical but more glyceral than the equally marvelous 2010 Riesling Séléction des Grains Nobles S from Hugel, but still-noteworthy acidity gives terrific cut and lift to the midpalate and extends the sexy, very suave flavors of orange oil, lemon verbena and jasmine drops and crushed stone on the long back end. This beauty is made from Engelsreben grapes (the soil is mostly granitic sand with clay about 3-4 meters down); it’s the only site in Hugel’s holdings that really botrytizes rather than air-dries (for example, grapes in the Sporen tend to air-dry). Check out these numbers: 220 g/L residual sugar and 8 g/L total acidity, and 100% noble rot. Alsace sweet wine doesn’t get any better than this. Only 1,500 bottles of this beauty were made, so getting hold of one will not be easy. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too proud to beg for mine.”