Site-typical cherry and lime scent Kerpen’s 2006 Bernkasteler Bratenhofchen Riesling Spatlese. Lushly-textured and ripe, yet brightly refreshing and cooling in its citrus and mint, this displays a distinctly alkaline and slightly fusil aspect that suggest more evolution than most of the wines in this year’s Kerpen collection. Despite a mere 8.5% alcohol, this is not overly sweet, but it is enormously expressive and impressively persistent. My intuition is that it will be best drunk on the early side, by which for this category I mean within 10-12 years. While Martin Kerpen’s extensive array of dry Rieslings from 2007 is not on quite the superlative order of their immediate predecessors, his residually sweet wines are again highly successful.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300