From red Permian sandstone, Gies-Duppel’s 2009 Birkweiler Kastanienbusch Riesling Spatlese trocken is alluringly scented with buddleia and orange blossom allied to pungent sage and crushed stone. Citrus rind and pip lend a piquant intensity to an oily-textured palate while the aforementioned floral notes waft all the way through to a gripping, invigorating, and satisfyingly juicy finish. I would plan to follow it for 5-7 years. Volker Gies – for more about whose vineyards and methods consult my coverage in issue 185 –continues to display impressive talent and is happily receiving increasing recognition inside Germany. Hopefully wider U.S. distribution of this estate’s wines will follow. Like other of the best 2009 vintage Rieslings from Gies’s corner of the southern Pfalz, his harbor highly efficacious acidity and high energy of a sort that can by no means be taken for granted – not even on the Mosel! – in this vintage (and indeed, is almost entirely absent in the Rieslings from further south in Alsace). I have been quite keen on Gies’s Pinot Blancs, but found them (as well as his Pinot Gris) – despite ample ripeness – marginally disappointing from 2009, a circumstance familiar from this vintage in neighboring Alsace.Importer: Tartaglione Fine Wines, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 216-3356