Schlossgut Diel Dorsheimer Pittermannchen Riesling Kabinett, Nahe, Germany

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Scents of apricot and lime in the Diels’ 2008 Dorsheimer Pittermannchen Riesling Kabinett lead to a lovely, quite delicate palate of lime chiffon and vanilla cream. Bitter hints of apricot kernel, gooseberry, and lime zest add counterpoint to a soothing, buoyant finish, while a saline, shrimp shell-like note lends both intrigue and lip-smacking savor. Incredibly, this carries 50 grams of residual sugar, yet thanks to a Mosel-like balance you hardly think about its sweetness. And of course, precisely this elevated residual sugar is what enables the low alcohol and thus the wine’s overall delicacy, uncannily allied to textural richness and a palpable sense of extract. With all respect due to the best dry German Rieslings – and Diel renders some of the best – this little, sweet Kabinett offers genuine intrigue, not to mention a set of virtues whose like you cannot remotely approach with any other grape or in any other country on earth. Furthermore, I’m waiting to taste the Grosses Gewachs that has the energy, agility, or elegance to challenge this flyweight Riesling after 15 years in the bottle. Caroline Diel is taking the reins at her family’s estate, and results in 2008 are as impressive as one would have expected given the track record at this address. The team here did not start harvesting until the third week in October and picked for nearly a month, due to which lateness the measurable acid levels (which were not adjusted) were relatively low by vintage standards, but the impression of acidity was more than vivacious and efficacious enough. On a quest for purity and authenticity, the Diels did not include in their bench trials for the blending of Grosse Gewachse any small lots of off-dry wine such as might in past have been employed expressly to fine-tune the finished levels of residual sugar. Instead, they let the blends all remain quite dry. Armin Diel has for at least the past dozen years championed and cherished the Mosel stylistic ideals of delicacy and of high residual sugar balanced against acidity. His choices of Mosel-born cellar master Martin Franzen (now of Muller-Catoir), and more recently of Moselaner Christoph Friedrich, testify to this proclivity. But there has never been a better vintage in which to give these ideals fluid realization. So if you are a lover of Kabinetts and Spatlesen from the likes of Joh. Jos. Prum, Willi Schaefer, or the Haags, do not miss the show Caroline and Armin Diel have put on this year, and that could be playing in your cellar any night over the next two decades!Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300