The 2008 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese Schmitt – another exercise in block-picking of the grapes “as they grew” – is redolent of and brimming with watermelon, musk melon, pink grapefruit, and white peach garlanded with mint and suffused with salt, honey, and malt. As in past renditions of this site that applied this picking concept, here one is especially conscious of the layering that results from picking grapes in different states of ripeness and of health or botrytization. The “regular” Schlossberg Spatlese shows more of the typical smoke and stone I associate with its Einzellage, but then, this is about a particular parcel on a particular day. It’s going to be a rare privilege to follow these special bottlings, and in particular to be able to compare them with corresponding “normal” pickings that involved selection of grapes under a particular aspect. With this “Schmitt,” too, I suspect we have a wine that will justify 20 or more years of bottle time. Johannes Selbach responded to the high energy and acidity of the 2008 vintage by giving most of the wines extra fine-lees contact and later-than-usual bottling. As a champion of (in his words) “genuine Kabinett” and “drinking wine, not trophy wine” and a resister against the encroachment of high must weights and residual sugar to which the weather in most recent vintages has left even him susceptible, Selbach was predictably overjoyed both with the refreshment, delicacy, and infectious drinkability made possible by vintage 2008, and with its preponderance of Kabinett and Spatlese. Several single-parcel, block-picked (i.e. the whole crop at once), vineyard-designated wines were essayed (that from the Anrecht – within Zeltinger Himmelreich – being new this year) although at Spatlese rather than, as usually in the past, Auslese Pradikat level. In fact, it remains Selbach’s intention to very soon remove the already small-print reference to Pradikat from these special bottlings, whose focus is intended to be entirely on reflecting terroir and vintage. (Ironically, though, the reference to the sites themselves remain in very small print, because the authorities are testy about the use of geographical designations other than those of the official Einzellagen singled-out – or, to put it more appropriately, assembled – in 1971.)There are a few regional importers of certain Selbach wines, but the majority (and those whose prices are noted above) are Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300
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