Battenfeld-Spanier Eisbach Riesling Qba Trocken, Rheinhessen, Germany

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While it’s named for an actual stream, Battenfeld-Spanier’s 2010 Riesling trocken Eisbach could equally well serve to illustrate the dictum nomen est omen, as indulging in its brightly citric and stonily mineral pleasures is a bit like diving into an icy book. Hints of basil and curry in the nose as well as saliva-liberating finishing salinity lend interest and some enticement to take the plunge, and this really is effusively juicy, if sharp, firm stuff. I suspect that opinions will divide, with most tasters, I’d predict, thinking that either I graded it too leniently or was unfairly strict! At 12.5% in alcohol, incidentally, this conveys a genuine sense of levity. I would plan on enjoying it over the next 3-4 years, but would count on monitoring its evolution all along, as I honestly can’t intuit whether this will turn more austere or less. This year’s Battenfeld-Spanier collection – which, in Oliver Spanier’s unavoidable absence, I tasted with his father-in-law Roland Gillot – proved on the whole far more generous in vinous personality than that of nuptial partner-estate Kuhling-Gillot. And while the higher-alcohol and more aggressive phenolics in this estate’s Grosses Gewachs bottlings had in the past led me to sometimes prefer their lighter, more elegant and refreshing, if ostensibly lesser, “village” cuvees, in 2010 the crus were neither alcoholically-freighted nor – with one exception – overly astringent. (Incidentally, I missed tasting this year’s generic Battenfeld-Spanier Riesling.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799

Named for the brook that carves a gap in the Donnersberg range through which cool air routinely penetrates to their vineyards, Battenfeld-Spanier's 2009 Riesling trocken Eisbach reflects principally gentle, chalk-dominated slopes and represents their attempt to fill a marketing gap between the estate's 'regular' generic bottling and village-designated wines selling for twice that price. I find this sleek little 'ice brook' of Riesling decidedly frigid, not that it lacks stuffing (at 12.5% alcohol) but on account of its bright citricity, rather adamant minerality, and austere dryness. It's piquantly and pithily nutty as well as undeniably persistent, but I find the ostensibly lesser generic from its vintage more generous in primary fruit juiciness and altogether more enticing. Perhaps this will put out a more ample welcome mat in the next 2-3 years, but I would plan on drinking it within that period regardless. Oliver Spanier - for information about whose distinctive sites and methods consult especially my report in issue 185 - harvested until November 3, 2009, allowing almost an entire month for optimizing ripeness. Just as at their Kuhling-Gillot estate, the team of Spanier and his wife Carolin Gillot seek to avoid bottling non-trocken wines, instead blending away any lots that finish with more than 9 grams of residual sugar. Spanier is among the many German Riesling growers who - in his words - are "working in the direction of clarity, freshness, finesse and elegance of expression rather than extract or power" (for which he used the English word). But it's one thing to talk the talk and another to walk the walk - assuming that one is attracted by these stated goals - and in that respect, Spanier is not the only ambitious German grower I have encountered whose ostensibly lesser bottlings (from 2009, anyway) strike me as living up to his stated ideals better than do his Grosse Gewachse.Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799