Schaefer’s 2005 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Auslese A.P. #11 offers baked apple, vanilla, and high-toned floral notes in the nose. Compactly concentrated on the palate with brown spice adjuncts to its appley fruit, it carries lots of sap and juicy fresh fruit into its finish, preserving remarkable clarity and purity, even if (for now, at least) it is not the last word in complexity.

By David Schildknecht October 2006