Spanier’s 2010 Molsheimer Riesling trocken displays a firm, bright, metaphorically cool impression such as calls to mind the microclimate prevailing in this chalky site. Yellow plum, lemon, and crushed stone inform the nose as well as a somewhat bitterly fruit pit- and citrus pip-tinged palate; and while this registers the same 12.5% alcohol, it doesn’t display the lift or elegance of its village-level Hohen-Sulzen counterpart. I would tentatively plan on drinking it over the next 3-4 years. This year’s Battenfeld-Spanier collection – which, in Oliver Spanier’s unavoidable absence, I tasted with his father-in-law Roland Gillot – proved on the whole far more generous in vinous personality than that of nuptial partner-estate Kuhling-Gillot. And while the higher-alcohol and more aggressive phenolics in this estate’s Grosses Gewachs bottlings had in the past led me to sometimes prefer their lighter, more elegant and refreshing, if ostensibly lesser, “village” cuvees, in 2010 the crus were neither alcoholically-freighted nor – with one exception – overly astringent. (Incidentally, I missed tasting this year’s generic Battenfeld-Spanier Riesling.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799