Emmerich Knoll Traminer Beerenauslese 2015

Picked in the final hours of harvest on a Friday the 13th, Knoll senior debated whether to call it done, but one parcel of the rare yellow Traminer had been left hanging since Smaragd harvest five weeks prior, with roughly a third of the fruit still botrytis-free and concentrated by wind desiccation rather than noble rot. That split personality comes through vividly: musk, bacon fat, rose water, candied ginger and lychee on the nose, lush and layered without ever tipping into excess. On the palate, glycerol-rich sweetness is carefully balanced, expansive and honeyed, but with a saline pull that keeps everything animated and mouthwatering, a quality the Smaragd from this vintage notably lacked. Rose petal perfume threads all the way through to a long, vibrant finish, where crystallized ginger and candied lime peel add a bracing lift. This is Traminer doing something its more familiar expressions rarely attempt: genuine freshness alongside opulence. Drink 2025–2045.