Quinine, yellow plum preserves, fresh blueberries, lime zest, and alkaline mineral notes distinctively characterize the Schonlebers’ 2008 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Eiswein (which was to be auctioned). A vanilla icing-like sense of confectionary sweetness on the palate gains some contrast in the form of tart fruit skin and bitter citrus zest. There is a wafting sense of elegance and delicacy that – like the wine’s sense of purity – deeply impresses; but either you need to bring to it, or the occasion of its being served, a strong predilection for sheer sweetness, or else you need to play the game of chance that is nearly always involved with cellaring Eiswein. I’m sure this wine will be fine 6-8 years from now – perhaps even more complex – but that will scarcely be enough time to make a dent in its perceived sense of sweetness. Werner and Frank Schonleber are another Nahe dream team whose amazing performance in 2007 has been equaled in 2008. “I wouldn’t call it a vintage with the emphasis on fruit,” says Werner Schonleber, “but rather on a pronounced, saline minerality. And there was no great selection of nobly sweet wine this year, because every three or four days it would rain at least a little bit.” He offers as “a very simple explanation” of this pronounced minerality the classic one adduced by growers (whether or not scientifically supportable) that the vines better “assimilate mineral stuff” when mild weather and plenty of moisture grease – as it were – the wheels of plant metabolism. And such vintages always boast measurably high levels of dry extract; the question remains, has that – as most growers believe – anything to do with their expression of flavors for which we feel compelled to employ mineral vocabulary?Importers: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644; Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463