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

The Messmer 2006 Burrweiler Schawer Riesling Grosses Gewachs smells of apricots with the bitterness of their pits, and a pungent plume of smoke. Voluminous, and not in the least heavy, this finishes with sappy, juicy intensity of musk melon and apricot that complement the wine’s wet stone expression of slate. Follow it for at least 6-8 years. I found a surprisingly dusty overlay in the aromas of this year’s Weyerer Michelsberg Grosses Gewachs, which also lacked the clarity of this year’s two dry Messmer wines from the Schawer. Following a highly successful collection in 2005, the Messmers struggled like so many of their neighbors with conditions in 2006. They added pickers and managed to bring in the crop in only two weeks.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel (516) 677-9300