2008 Monzinger Halenberg Spatlese

Minerally youth on the nose. Very firm and directed. Brisk palate scrub. The acidity still dominates the sweetness. (JR)

Delicate but lightly tropical nose. Fine and fresh but less focused than the 2009s and not as long. Pretty though.

Smoky, struck-flint, and salt spray notes rise from the glass of Schonleber 2008 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Spatlese, accompanied by red berries, citrus, and white peach. This is dense and compact, with a sense of extract and minerality you imagine having to strain through your teeth. There is an underlying sense of richness as well as fine ripe acidity, and the wine could serve as a model for balanced Riesling residual sweetness. Yet, impressive though it is, it is totally different in personality from the corresponding Fruhlingsplatzchen, and cannot compete for excitement. I would be inclined to hold this for a few years before revisiting, and am confident it will be an outstanding wine 20 or more years from now. Werner and Frank Schonleber are another Nahe dream team whose amazing performance in 2007 has been equaled in 2008. “I wouldn’t call it a vintage with the emphasis on fruit,” says Werner Schonleber, “but rather on a pronounced, saline minerality. And there was no great selection of nobly sweet wine this year, because every three or four days it would rain at least a little bit.” He offers as “a very simple explanation” of this pronounced minerality the classic one adduced by growers (whether or not scientifically supportable) that the vines better “assimilate mineral stuff” when mild weather and plenty of moisture grease – as it were – the wheels of plant metabolism. And such vintages always boast measurably high levels of dry extract; the question remains, has that – as most growers believe – anything to do with their expression of flavors for which we feel compelled to employ mineral vocabulary? Importers: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644; Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463