Peaches and toasted almonds – along with an Alsace-like meld of honey and petrol – grace the nose of Ratzenberger 2007 Bacharacher Posten Riesling Spatlese halbtrocken. This comes onto the palate enveloping in its creamy richness, full of stuffing, and with undertones of caramel. Yet, there is a persistent thread of fresh citrus here, too, that keeps the wine lively and somehow steers clear of sowing discord. It should be worth following for at least 8-10 years, and I have a feeling that it will be more expressive this year than it was when I tasted it last year. Jochen Ratzenberger Jr. expressed delight with his 2007s, and even though I’m straining to recollect a vintage with which he wasn’t pleased, the truth is, he and his father comprise one of the most consistently high-performance teams in German viticulture, and their 2007 collection is consistently impressive. Both of the Ratzenbergers’ 2007 vintage Grosse Gewachse – in what has been fairly typical behavior – finished fermenting only in mid-August, and were immediately bottled with barely enough time to appear at the annual Berlin Presentation of Germany’s collective wines in this genreImported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644