The smoky cast of Kuhling-Gillot’s 2009 Niersteiner Pettenthal Riesling Grosses Gewachs is more of the savory, saliva-inducing smoked meat sort than of the more aggressive and acerbic wood smoke variety approached by the corresponding bottlings from Oelberg and Rothenberg. Along with peach, almond and tangerine or kumquat that – like the evocation of smoked meat – are typical of this site, come attractive floral adjuncts. Drastic dryness and crushed stone suggestions render the pithy finish here borderline austere despite its sheer persistence, but the wine’s textural richness and complexity more than make up for any such hindrances, resulting in a Riesling that should merit following for at least the next 5-6 years.Like her husband Oliver Spanier (of Weingut Battenfeld-Spanier), Carolin Gillot – for more about whose estate see in particular my reports in issues 185 and 187 – seems disinclined to tolerates residual sugar in her wines. Whether or not it is for that reason that they elected not to bottle the 28 gram residual sugar successor to the superb Kuhling-Gillot 2008 Gewurztraminer feinherb, I do wish I’d had chance to satisfy my curiosity by sampling that wine from cask. (I missed out also on sampling this year’s Kuhling-Gillot Pinot Gris from bottle.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799