Schonleber’s 2007 Grauburgunder S smells of green herbs and toasted hazelnuts. With the snap and salinity of soy sauce-tinged water chestnut and suggestions of under-ripe peach, it displays an uncanny ability (more often observed in Pinot Blanc) to display both power and elegance and to retain sap and refreshment even as it projects considerable body (at 13.5% alcohol). Subtle suggestions from the cask, a faintly bitter, pungent edge, and suggestion of wet stone all add counterpoint to hints of nut cream, while a subtle oiliness of texture adds allure to this Pinot Gris whose illustrious predecessors often did not hit their stride for a few years and remained delicious for a decade or more. To say that Werner and son Frank Schonleber have been on a roll lately must count as an understatement (and that applies to 2008, too). Two heads are better than one, no doubt, plus the advantages of accumulated wisdom and acreage – the family is filling-in what was once a decidedly, in places depressingly patchy landscape by buying up prime parcels from retiring vintners – are obvious. The Schonlebers went over their vineyards in early October to pull out some botrytis that had already accumulated and to thin their crop, and began seriously harvesting Riesling after the 10th. The estate’s vines were largely spared savage but capricious hail that rained down on parts of the Fruhlingsplatzchen. Werner Schonleber draws a stylistic comparison with the 2002 vintage, which he convincingly demonstrated with several bottles.Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463