One of the most astounding wines I have ever drunk. Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) is the sweetest, most concentrated, rarest and most expensive German wine, and I recently had the privilege of drinking it at dinner with one of the top producers, Raimund Prüm. At first it was just intense honeyed sweetness but as soon as the foie gras appeared, the whole experienced changed as layer upon layer of wondrous complexity emerged. There was an earthy woodiness along with roasted hazelnuts, smoked almonds, more honey, apricots, peaches, figs and sweet comice pears. But when the foie gras was finished the wine seemed to looses this glorious layered complexity and reverted to its original simple sweetness. It was as if the food and the wine not only complimented each other, but needed each other to come into their true decadent glory.

4/26/10