Just as in the transition from one to the other of his drier feinherb versions, Geiben’s 2008 Kaseler Nies’chen Riesling Kabinett is considerably more expressive than the comparable Mauerchen. Honeysuckle and apple blossom on the nose lead into a silken-textured, luscious palate dominated by ripe honeydew melon and tinged with cooling mint and alluring cinnamon spice. A saline savor and low-toned nut oil richness help extend and deepen the finishing impression. Although (at 48 grams) this has around a third more residual sugar than the Mauerchen, its sweetness is better-integrated. This excellent representative of its site should be worth following for a dozen or more years. Peter Geiben’s 2008 results were irregular, with some wines too aggressive in their parsnip-like herbal pungency and too opaque as opposed to transparent to count as ideal representations of this estate and its vineyards, while others were distinguished. Geiben says he had bought the requisite preparations and was all set in December to de-acidify some of his young wines, “but then I tasted again in January, and I thought: ‘where’d all that sourness go?’ In the end, I only de-acidified two or three wines.” The main reason for this transformation was simply tartrate precipitation, Geiben opines. Only in March or April though, he insists – echoing many other growers this year – did the wines start to show their positive side. Incidentally, this year all of the wines here fermented spontaneously, and a number of them show it in yeasty, fermentative overlay that needs time to dissipate.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300