Gies’s 2007 Birkweiler Mandelberg Riesling Spatlese represents one of two spontaneously-fermented tanks from a single picking, the other of which informed the corresponding trocken bottling. Quince, pear, honeysuckle, and gardenia in the nose and on a gently soothing, subtly-creamy, delicate palate lead to a rather understated but lovely finish that preserves a nectar-like sense of perfume and supportive sweetness. Giess only wants to produce a sweet Spatlese when he thinks conditions are ideal. The previous essay in this format was 2004 and is very impressive today. 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