Utilizing the best parcels and tiniest-berried bunches as well as longer skin contact in the press and longer lees contact than did the corresponding Schiefer Spatlese bottling, Messmer’s 2008 Burrweiler Schawer Riesling Grosses Gewachs is alluringly scented with heliotrope, peony, grapefruit, and apricot; offers stuffing and sap on an expansive palate; and finishes with vividly stony persistence and a sense of interplay between fruit, flower, and otherwise ineffable crystalline mineral elements. This should be worth following for a decade or more. It had been too long since I’d seen Gregor Messmer (although I am at his winery annually) and I was encouraged by witnessing him professing his rededication to his vineyards. That said, after a 2007 collection that was the best I had tasted here in a number of years, I found that some of these 2008s – which were harvested between the 18th and 30th of October – leaned rather sharply in the direction of leanness and Sauvignon greenness and shared with many of their fellow Pfalz trocken Rieslings an extremely tart brightness.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300