With Busch’s generic 2007 Riesling Kabinett – from high elevation grey slate parcels, as always, within the Marienburg – we pass into the range of distinct though still restrained sweetness. This smells of autumn pears, apricot, green tea, and honey. Delicate and refined on the palate, with nut oils and orchard fruit accompanied by suggestions of wet stone and a faintly developed note of fusil oil, this finishes long on mineral and carnal mysteries, yet with malt, honey, rich nut oils, and very pure fruit all well-supported by the wine’s residual sugar and complimented by a hint of pear pip bitterness. I could well imagine this remaining fascinating for 5-7 years. Clemens Busch – among the Mosel’s few organic vintners, and the undisputed champion of the Lower Mosel’s steep Pundericher Marienburg – is also rapidly demonstrating that he is simply one of the collective Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer’s exceptional talents, not to mention stylistically free spirits. Most of his top wines are labeled with their old pre-1971 site names. Nature thrust on him in 2006 an unprecedented 9 Auslesen (many distinguished only by number), 3 Beerenauslesen, and single T.B.A. (most of which were reviewed in issue 179). In 2007, an at least slightly more normal – not to mention more marketable – balance of dry-tasting (though not always legally trocken) wines was restored, but success, Busch insists, was possible only by dint of great patience and then, when the time was ripe for picking, in great haste. A considerable number of overtly nobly sweet wine was picked in the process, as there was no lack of botrytis in this fungicide-free zone.Mosel Wine Merchant selections (various importers), Trier, Gemany; fax 011 49 (0)651-14551 39; also imported by by Ewald Moseler Selections, Portland OR tel. 888 274 4312