Racy and floral, displaying peach-laden flavors and plenty of cinnamon and clove notes. Cream, white chocolate and glazed apricot fill the well-structured finish to the brim. Drink now through 2025. 450 cases made.??–KM??Region: Germany / Mosel Select to Add

At only 7.5% alcohol, the Richter 2009 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spatlese manages to handle 70 grams of residual sugar with remarkable aplomb thanks to brash acidity and presumptive underlying extract. Bright pineapple, grapefruit, and lemon inform the nose as well as a vigorously refreshing, feather-light palate, finishing with satisfying persistence and the promise of a good two decades of high performance. While yields were down significantly in Muhlheim and Brauneberg – particularly due to peronospora – and sorting almost universally required, Dirk Richter reports that his overall 2009 crop was above- average volume, though he acknowledges that due to the need for relatively intensive spraying against fungal pests, both its ripening and the evolution of the resulting wines were retarded. Kabinetts were not picked until the last days of October; acid levels of most wines are well above vintage average; there was little Auslese; and some wines (Kabinetts, as it happens!) had not yet bottled when I visited in September. Richer – whose Rieslings from top sites continue to be bargain-priced – has just taken over a section of Erdener Treppchen that is in the family of his cellarmaster, who has no heirs. While there were still stocks of some 2008 vintage Rieslings available when I visited in September, the 2009 Richter Pinot Blanc had already been sold out without remainder, so I did not get chance to taste that of-late often promising bottling.Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861-6800

Lime, cherry, and grapefruit in the nose of Richter’s 2008 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spatlese betray the Bernkastel-proximity and orientation of this high-altitude, upstream portion of the official Graacher Himmelreich vineyard. Gooseberry pungency and tartness impinges on the palate, but thanks to judicious sweetness, an overall impression of succulence is conveyed. This represents essentially a sweeter, even more wound-up version of the corresponding Kabinett, and will no doubt remain lively for 12-15 years. “We had the November weather in October, and the lovely October weather in November,” says Dirk Richter of 2008, thereby essentially explaining his harvest strategy. He ameliorated acidity through skin contact; nature helped by precipitating tartrates; and nonetheless, some wines were de-acidified already as must. Richter is pleased to characterize the results as “classic Mosel Rieslings,” and since Richter spends a great deal of time promoting his wines in the U.S. I am happy to be able to concur in that description, even if some of his 2008s are only modestly successful. Richter admits that this collection is likely at least for the short term to be overshadowed by those on either side of it, but speculates that the 2008s will have their day if given time.Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland,?OH; tel. (216) 861-6800

Brash, lemony, grapefruit brightness hits you in the nose and mouth when you approach Richter’s 2007 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spatlese. High-toned mint, sage, and distilled pit fruits add to the exuberant and diverse chorus here, and sappy fruit and herb intensity carries into a long, invigorating finish. Subtlety and delicacy are not what this wine is about. But it is a striking success nonetheless; its elements will probably organize themselves with time in bottle; and 12-15 years of useful life can be safely predicted. Dirk Richter is an historian of the Mosel as well as one of the region’s foremost growers, and he claims that on five occasions in the eleven years between and including the epochal vintages of 1911 and 1921, flowering on the Mosel took place in May ... but then not again until 2007. He started picking already in early October, but only as a means of thinning (“pre-harvesting”) his Brauneberg vineyards, and the resultant Kabinett is rather green in flavor. Harvest did not begin in earnest here until mid-October, and save for the two T.B.A.s that he painstakingly collected, Richter insists there was scarcely any botrytis. Interesting, the yields from Richter’s Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyards – his only remaining ungrafted vines – were the highest this year that he has ever experienced, and the wines are by no means disappointing (although Auslese was not possible). The grip exhibited by his dry-tasting wines may in part come from the skin contact Richter gives most of them, in part to buffer their acids. Still, as he puts it, “with the intense minerality, strong acidity, and very low pH of Mosel Riesling, some residual sugar is needed. And here, with feinherb-as-trocken, that need is borne out quite clearly, and the wine tastes dry, and people drink it as ‘dry’.” What’s more, lower alcohol helps these “dry” Riesling dance. If feinherb (often as high here as 25 grams in residual sugar) works on Richter’s German customers, halleluiah! For anybody else, these feinherb Kabinetts should be no-brainers, especially at his prices. Richer shares my enthusiasm for the undeservedly obscure and misunderstood Pinot Blanc (a.k.a. Wiesser Burgunder), and is in process of doubling his acreage and planning to produce some Sekt from it as wellImporter: Langdon-Shiverick Cleveland,?OH; tel. (216) 861-6800