From the domaine’s monopole within the Pfingstberg – fully one third in old vines trained in the ancient manner to single posts (en echalas) – their 2004 Riesling Clos Schild was only bottled in December 2006. Pungently herbal, smoky, distilled pit fruit aromatics lead to a richly-textured palate featuring honey-glazed dried pit fruits with herb and fruit pit accents. Smooth and polished in texture, strikingly concentrated, but with an undeniably bitter side to it, this lays down impressively long mineral finishing traces. Despite its impressive concentration, I would follow this cautiously over the next couple of years lest it become more austere. The 2002 – the first Clos Schild rendered with a new degree of fruit selectivity and a new press – although clearly never on a qualitative par with the 2004, was worryingly attenuated (as were several other older Albrecht wines I tasted) on this same occasion. Jean Albrecht offers a range of negotiant wines (sparkling, and those labeled “Reserve”) as well as domaine bottlings, together with a remarkably deep range of older vintages, and none of the 2005s from his top sites had been bottled yet last Spring, nor was he willing to show them. Among numerous ambitious plans afoot here is a replanting program based entirely on selection massale from the estate’s best old vines.Importer: Pasternak Wine Imports, Harrison, NY; tel. (914) 630-8214