The Schonlebers’ 2008 Grauburgunder S is even more striking – because less-expected – than the corresponding Pinot Blanc for its brightness and sense of lift, virtues that usually accrue to Pinot Gris only at the price of deficiency in ripeness, but is not evident here. Green hazelnuts and marginally ripe yellow plum inform a juicy, refreshing, almost delicate palate, and hints of toasted almond and salt inform a satisfyingly savory and stimulating finish. I’d plan on enjoying this over the next 3-4 years. Werner and Frank Schonleber are another Nahe dream team whose amazing performance in 2007 has been equaled in 2008. “I wouldn’t call it a vintage with the emphasis on fruit,” says Werner Schonleber, “but rather on a pronounced, saline minerality. And there was no great selection of nobly sweet wine this year, because every three or four days it would rain at least a little bit.” He offers as “a very simple explanation” of this pronounced minerality the classic one adduced by growers (whether or not scientifically supportable) that the vines better “assimilate mineral stuff” when mild weather and plenty of moisture grease – as it were – the wheels of plant metabolism. And such vintages always boast measurably high levels of dry extract; the question remains, has that – as most growers believe – anything to do with their expression of flavors for which we feel compelled to employ mineral vocabulary?Importers: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644; Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463