From the heat-trapping, early-ripening steep slopes of the Saarfeilser Marienberg, St. Urbans-Hof’s 2005 Saarfeilser Riesling Spatlese offers scents and flavors of grapefruit, licorice, cherry stone, and just plain (wet slate) stone, a lovely interchange of bitter, sweet and sharp notes, subtle hints of cream and honey, and a delicately sweet but long, deep, and decidedly slatey finish. The team here – cellarmaster Rudi Hoffmann, vineyard manager Hermann Jostock, and proprietor Nik Weis – continued their streak of highly successful harvests this year, albeit at the price of extremely low yields.Importer: H. B. Wine Merchants, New York, NY; tel. (917) 402-0456