Weingut Kerpen Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese Trocken, Mosel, Germany

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Smoky black tea and toasted nuts along with musk oil and raw scallop in the intriguing nose of Kerpen’s 2009 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese trocken are followed by a pity, stone-paved palate impression and persistent finish. A sense of overt substantiality keeps this from displaying the elegance of its also more complex Wehlener Sonnenuhr counterpart, and it certainly won’t make one forget the outstanding 2008 Domprobst trocken. That noted, this serious if slightly dour expression of its vintage and site may well display additional virtues over the next 3-5 years. Martin Kerpen’s 2009 collection Rieslings possess uncommon brightness for their vintage, and he continues to excel across a blessedly broad stylistic range, from legally trocken through nobly sweet – and, more importantly, with plenty of successful stops in-between. It’s worth noting that Kerpen is especially keen on the quality of his nobly sweet 2009s – wines that are certainly close to off-the-charts on paper – although as readers can see, my praise for them is more selective.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

One of an unprecedented trio of dry-tasting wines from its site this vintage, Kerpen's 2008 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese trocken offers scents and flavors of fresh apple and raw almond and a marvelous combination of textural richness and sense of underlying stuffing with refreshment and transparency to alkaline, smoky, and crushed stone nuances. Hints of brown spices and apple pit bitterness add to the stimulation of a long, luscious finish such as one seldom encounters in legally trocken Middle Mosel Riesling. I honestly haven't much experience with tasting older trocken Riesling from Kerpen - only halbtrocken, which can age superbly - but I suspect this wine will retain its fine balance and vigor for at least 4-5 years in bottle, and probably longer. In recent years, Martin Kerpen has increasingly proven himself a master of dry Riesling, and the acid structure and relatively moderate accumulation of grape sugar relative to phenolic ripeness that characterize 2008 played into his skilled hand in that genre, in which, additionally, he relied increasingly this year on ambient yeasts. (Of course, he is adept with residually sweet Riesling as well.) it's interesting to study Kerpen's detailed map of vineyard parcels, incidentally, and to see how after the controversial Flurbereinigung or general vineyard restructuring and replanting that is now under way in Wehlen, he will end up with around 8-9 parcels - some identical to his current acreage - or about half the number into which his total landholdings are morsellated at present.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300