One of an unprecedented trio of dry-tasting wines from its site this vintage, Kerpen's 2008 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese trocken offers scents and flavors of fresh apple and raw almond and a marvelous combination of textural richness and sense of underlying stuffing with refreshment and transparency to alkaline, smoky, and crushed stone nuances. Hints of brown spices and apple pit bitterness add to the stimulation of a long, luscious finish such as one seldom encounters in legally trocken Middle Mosel Riesling. I honestly haven't much experience with tasting older trocken Riesling from Kerpen - only halbtrocken, which can age superbly - but I suspect this wine will retain its fine balance and vigor for at least 4-5 years in bottle, and probably longer. In recent years, Martin Kerpen has increasingly proven himself a master of dry Riesling, and the acid structure and relatively moderate accumulation of grape sugar relative to phenolic ripeness that characterize 2008 played into his skilled hand in that genre, in which, additionally, he relied increasingly this year on ambient yeasts. (Of course, he is adept with residually sweet Riesling as well.) it's interesting to study Kerpen's detailed map of vineyard parcels, incidentally, and to see how after the controversial Flurbereinigung or general vineyard restructuring and replanting that is now under way in Wehlen, he will end up with around 8-9 parcels - some identical to his current acreage - or about half the number into which his total landholdings are morsellated at present.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300