The 2007 Riesling trocken Buntsandstein features orange, apple, nut oils, and a savory, salkine streak, with a flatteringly tender texture; ingratiatingly ripe, efficacious yet not at all sharp acidity; and lovely buoyancy thanks in part to a mere 12% alcohol. And like its Rotliegendes counterpart, this has a mere 4 grams of residual sugar, yet is anything but austere. Volker Gies took over his family’s domaine in 1999, and is relentlessly and successfully pursuing quality and site-specificity while offering (at least, based on ex-cellar pricing) some of the finest values I have tasted in German wine over the past several years. Some potentially exciting new vineyard sites have recently been cleared for planting it is clear that, as impressive as these wines are, there will be much more excitement up ahead. Although it had been in the bottle 18 months when I tasted it last September, Duppel’s well-concentrated but rather awkwardly woody, rough 2005 Pinot Noir represented at that time his current offering. But red wines represented the only disappointment of any sort at this address, and even here there is promise. Like his more famous neighbors Rebholz and Wehrheim, Giess renders a range of site-specific Pinot Blancs.Importer: Tartaglione Fine Wines, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 216-3356