2002 Goldackerl Trockenbeerenauslese, Willi Opitz

The Golden Masterpiece.

A wine that borders on the transcendent, the 2002 Goldackerl Trockenbeerenauslese is Willi Opitz at his most masterful, a liquid symphony of sweetness, texture, and luminous precision. Deep amber in hue, it opens with a rich perfume of dried apricot, candied pineapple, honeycomb, and orange marmalade, interwoven with notes of saffron, almond and caramelised citrus peel. The palate is a marvel of concentration, viscous yet weightless, endlessly layered, its intense sweetness perfectly countered by crystalline acidity. The finish is near-eternal: golden fruit, spice and minerality lingering like the final note of a perfectly held chord.

For when: you want a glass that feels like time stood still.
Pairs with: foie gras, tarte tatin, or simply quiet awe.
If this wine were a piece of music, it’d be a Debussy nocturne, radiant, delicate, infinitely detailed.

Willi Opitz, the visionary winemaker of Illmitz in Austria’s Burgenland, has spent decades redefining what sweet wine can be. His tiny family estate, nestled on the misty shores of Lake Neusiedl, is famous for crafting some of Europe’s most revered Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines, each bottle a labour of extraordinary patience and precision.

The Goldackerl vineyard, Opitz’s crown jewel, benefits from the lake’s unique microclimate, where morning fogs and warm afternoons create ideal conditions for Botrytis cinerea (noble rot). The Trockenbeerenauslese represents the pinnacle of this process: berries shrivelled almost to raisins, hand-picked individually, pressed drop by precious drop. The 2002 vintage, long, even, and blessed with textbook noble rot, produced a wine of astonishing purity and longevity. It stands today as one of Opitz’s finest creations: rich yet ethereal, endlessly complex, and a shining benchmark for Austrian sweet wine.