Loewen’s 2009 Detzemer Maximiner Klosterlay Riesling Christopher’s Wein is scented with grapefruit rind, musk melon, caraway, and toasted pumpkin seeds. Salinity and toasty pungency – traits influenced by what is always a more prominent influence of thousand-liter casks on this bottling – both enhance and offer counterpoint to the richness of fruit and satiny texture on exhibit; and the wine’s sense of substantiality is consistent with fine finishing refreshment. I don’t recall a previous edition of this bottling – nick-named for Loewen’s oldest son – that has worked so well, and it ought to prove versatile over at least the coming 4-6 years, though this once-famous site has historically been capable of delivering Riesling of prodigious longevity. (At 10.5 grams residual sugar, it’s not quite legally trocken, but Loewen says his customers by now associate the names of his non-Pradikat wines with a dry taste and don’t scrutinize the labels year-to-year lest they lose the “trocken” imprimatur.) Karl-Josef Loewen’s general approach – to as he puts it “make little wine from many bunches, rather than little wine from few bunches” – fits the relatively generous 2009 vintage well in principle, provided however – as he is quick to point out – one let the fruit hang long enough. “The temptation is strong – and it’s common on the Mosel – to treat (read: charcoal-fine) the botrytized musts,” notes Loewen, “be we didn’t do anything this year, and I really think that was the wisest decision I have ever made.” (Incidentally, the trio of upper-Pradikat wines of this collection for which suggested retail prices are not noted will, according to importer Terry Theise, be made available in the U.S. for any merchants whose fancy they take.)Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300