A pungent, fungal, funky, tooth-jarringly acidic “l(fā)ong gold capsule” A.P. #15, harvested December 21, was raucous and inharmonious on the occasion I visited. Apparently, however, the ice demons were thereby exorcized, because the next day the estate harvested an angelic 2004 Lorenzhofer Riesling Eiswein, which smells of pear nectar, lemon oil, and radish. It presents a lemon meringue-like palate impression, with cinnamon-tinged honey and quince jelly adjuncts, and finishes with ravishing refinement, and amazing lightness and lift. This exceptionally pure Eiswein might not be the last word in complexity, but that may well come with time. How much time? I’d revisit it in ten or a dozen years to more adequately answer that question. An Eiswein was also harvested in the Kaseler Nies’chen but Geiben did not give me an opportunity to taste it.Note that proprietor Peter Geiben has begun to put his family name in large letters on at least some of his bottlings, and his wines from the holdings that he took over from the neighboring Patheiger estate are still labeled “Patheiger”. Add to this his proclivity for labeling certain of his wines with the names of individual vineyards, his looseness in the use of “gold” and “l(fā)ong gold capsule”, and his attempts to do away with distinctions of “Pradikat” on most of his dry wines, and you have a recipe for potential confusion of which consumers should be aware. But by no means allow yourself to be deterred, because this estate is rather routinely bottling some very fine wines.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300.