Prüm has made a tiny amount of Goldkapsel this year. For this rare style, multiple passes and draconian selections were required to harvest fruit at precisely the right level of ripeness. Despite the early harvest, Prüm was also able to bring in some beautiful botrytis-affected grapes, which, in the end, accounted for roughly one-third of the fruit that made these wines.
Katharina Prüm explains the Goldkapsel wines in this way: “Think of them as limited edition, small production lots of the best Auslese of a vintage. They are made from stronger, selected grapes containing more concentrated juice, usually affected by a certain amount of botrytis. They can age even remarkably longer than ‘basic’ Auslesen, lasting for many decades. Over time, they lose some of their sweetness, gain more and more elegance and harmony, and the complex profile and depth come to the forefront.”
Goldkapsel wines can work very well with desserts—ideally fruit-based dishes or crème caramel, typically nothing too sweet or chocolate-based. However, they are again better paired—especially with age—with robust, savoury food and especially cheese. Regarding savoury dishes, you can throw anything at them, even very spicy dishes, red meat and the same flavours mentioned in the Auslese bracket above. These wines are far more versatile than most dry whites and certainly more so than all red wine styles.