One warm April morning in London wine writers Stephen Brook, Margaret Rand and I gathered in a small room to taste 56 sweet and generally sumptuous German 2005 Rieslings, including 14 Beerenauslesen and no fewer than 18 TBAS.
Were we mad? Almost certainly certifiable. These wines are rarities, the produce of hunched, nail-biting, late picking in the vineyard when botrytis has done its best, and then persuading the resulting tiny batches of troublesome, sugar-heavy musts in warm corners of cellars and kitchens to ferment. TBAs are the vinous equivalent of orphaned lambs which have to be coaxed to hang...