Kerpen’s 2009 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese halbtrocken – corresponding to a wine that was labeled “halbtrocken” last year, and from raw material he said differed little from that of this year’s Domprobst trocken – brims with ripe white peach and Persian melon, inflected by nut oils and an intriguing, musky animality that is present in several wines of its collection. Nuts, peach kernel, and salts offer counterpoint to ripe fruits in a long, saliva-inducing finish. Here is a perfect example of what I call the “hidden sweetness” (analytically 18 grams in this instance) that highlights a Riesling’s fruit and will render it superbly adaptable at table over the coming 10-12 years if not longer. (Try it with scallop dishes, for instance.) But Kerpen confirms my experience that a wine like this would be a nearly impossible sell to most German restaurateurs – and for that matter the majority of his countrymen – because it’s not trocken. 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