A. Christmann Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs, Pfalz, Germany

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Alkaline and oddly green wood-like notes in the nose of the Christmann 2008 Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten Riesling Grosses Gewachs mingle with scents of distilled pit fruits and floral and herbal essences. On the palate, peach and lemon, bitter herbs and saline mineral notes add further interest, but what this lacks is precisely the ample primary juiciness that accrued to the 2007 version. It might well last a decade, but I don’t anticipate much of what I would term sensual appeal, and I’d watch out for signs of desiccated flavors or the emergence of more prominent bitterness. As president of the VDP growers’ association, Steffen Christmann has been in the forefront of regulations for (in theory) simplifying members’ wine labeling and cutting down on the frequency with which single vineyard names and so-called Pradikat terms are utilized. Ironically, his own portfolio is one of those whose winery-internal hierarchy might well confuse anyone who isn’t a cellar door customer with time to carefully read the estate’s price list. Bottlings labeled for their village – not vineyard – of origin but with the initials S.C. serve as the second wines for Christmann’s Grosse Gewachse, while theoretically beneath these are a range of wines still bottled with the names of their single vineyards (and, until 2008, with Pradikat). Beneath those are further village-labeled Rieslings and a generic. In 2008, by no means all of these stylistically uniform and occasionally rather severe wines are especially distinctive in personality from one another; although, no doubt wanting to offer his customers a range of price points up to the increasingly elevated tariff of Grosse Gewachse is a significant motivation for Christmann’s proliferation of tiers and bottlings. Incidentally, Karl-Friedrich Christmann – who showed me the 2008 collection in his son’s absence – concurs in the perception of this vintage as very similar to its predecessor, although I found the tendency toward leanness, brightness, phenolic pungency, and uncompromising dryness that typify Christmann Rieslings to have been magnified this year vis-a-vis last. And last year, unlike this one, there were some nobly sweet wines. Importer: Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799