Grown across the Mosel from the Mullay-Hofberg, Melsheimer’s 2009 Reiler Goldlay Riesling Spatlese is scented and succulently filled with salt-, caramel-, and ginger-tinged pear, quince, and grapefruit, while heliotrope and freesia waft seductively all the way through its long finish. Silken in texture, it displays buoyancy perfectly suited to its clarity and sheer juiciness. While overtly – almost too – sweet, this does not prevent it from stimulating one’s salivary glands nor from displaying mineral nuances. I suspect (lacking much experience with older wines at this address) that this will be worth following for more than a decade and be more interesting if it holds up longer so that its sweetness can back off a bit. I was so fascinated by the highly distinctive wines I tasted last year from organic pioneer Melsheimer (reported on in issue 187, where I also describe some of the many sites he cultivates) that I felt compelled to return. Unfortunately, he was abroad selling for the entire time that I spent in Germany, but I visited and tasted a substantial portion of the 2009 collection with his family. Several dry wines, including some he considers among his top lots were, however, in too unfinished a state even in September for him to be willing to show them to me, and it is to be expected that some of his 2009s will only be offered for sale next year. So far, I have tasted relatively few older Melsheimer wines, and they are all conspicuously (I mean sensorially, not merely on paper) low in sulfur, so I prefer to be both conservative and vague in any prognoses of age-ability.Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799