Assembled from several lots of impressively high must weight and reflecting some of this estate’s oldest vines, the Jakob Schneider 2010 Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Spatlese delivers luscious, palate-coating red currant, honeydew melon, grapefruit and lime, accented by pleasant tartness and piquancy of berry skin, citrus pips, toasted nuts, and juniper berry as well as by myriad suggestions of things mineral, most notably a smoky, oily aura vividly suggestive of crushed Tonschiefer (not to suggest that this site is in reality geologically restricted to that particular oily slate formation). Metaphorically cooling as well as pungent overtones of mint and lavender add to this wine’s allure. It finishes with a slightly superficial degree of sweetness but not so as to disrupt an admirable sense of transparency to nuanced undertones, and given that one can expect at least two decades of great interest ahead of it, some extra residual sugar might ultimately serve this Riesling very well. (Hermannshohle Spatlesen from the 1980s bottled by the late Hans Schneider were certainly not grown or vinified to this estate’s current standards, but nonetheless reflected some of their site’s greatness and what’s more aged in my cellar quite successfully into the new millennium.) As Helmut Donnhoff – with whom I shared a bottle of this 2010 Spatlese – said apropos young Schneider and his celebrated site: “Responsibility met!”Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300