Alois Kracher TBA #7 Zwischen den Seen / 2018 / 375mL

Description:

The Alois Kracher TBA No. 7 Zwischen den Seen 2018 is a Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese from Neusiedlersee-Burgenland, deeply sweet but cut through with bright natural acidity. Golden in the glass, it tastes of tropical fruit and citrus peel rather than heavy botrytis syrup.

Aromatically, this Kracher TBA leans on passionfruit, mango and pink grapefruit, with lemon rind, honeycomb and the dried-apricot lift that botrytised Scheurebe does so well. There is a faintly herbal, blackcurrant-leaf edge underneath that keeps the fruit from turning confected.

The Zwischen den Seen wines are vinified in stainless steel or large casks, and malolactic fermentation is avoided, so the acidity arrives intact. That shows in the shape of the wine: unctuous and thickly textured across the middle, then drawn out long and clean by citrus-driven acid, finishing sweet without ever feeling cloying.

Serve it well chilled in small pours alongside apricot tart, crème brûlée or a slice of aged Gouda. It also handles blue cheese and foie gras, and the 375mL bottle is the sensible size for a table of four at the end of a long dinner — enough for everyone, with nothing left to regret in the morning.

Drinking beautifully now and good for two decades or more, though half bottles evolve faster than 750mL, so expect this one to reach its honeyed, marmalade phase a little ahead of its full-sized siblings.