Weil’s 2006 Kiedricher Turmberg Riesling Spatlese displays far more clarity, drive, and personality than this year’s generic Spatlese. Pear, apricot, yellow plum, and pineapple are accompanied by lily-like sweet floral and ethereally honeyed botrytis notes in the nose, and saturate the palate with pure fruit and honey. For all of its richness this has elegance and finishes with the salty, chalky mineral expressions one seeks in great Kiedrich Riesling. This beauty is worth cellaring for at least 10-12 years. Wilhelm Weil relates that his team (twice the size he would have fielded only a few years ago) harvested for seven weeks without pause, 14-18 hours a day in order to capture the best possible quality from a year that set records in the Rheingau for total heat accumulation, but then of course threw inopportune rain in the vintner’s way. “The critical thing was to retain a reflection of our terroir, but to make use of the opportunity afforded by such precocious ripeness,” he observes. As in so many recent vintages, the Weil estate also benefited from some of the stoniest soils and highest, breeziest exposures in the Rheingau. Imported by Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; 800-596-9463

Fresh nectarine, orange and vanilla cream notes pervade this compact Riesling. Has bracing acidity that should serve it well over time. Drink now through 2022. 50 cases imported.??–BS??Region: Germany / Rheingau Select to Add