2007 Riesling Spatlese

Lime, cherry, brown spices, and a hint of gooseberry in the nose of Weil’s 2007 Riesling Spatlese lead to a luscious palate impression and juicy finish with a subtle sense of sweetness and but slightly detached acids. A flattering and invigorating sense of spiciness follows this all the way through, helping tie together the elements of a wine that is still in need of knitting, but preserves an admirable sense of delicacy and vivacity, and should be worth holding for up to a decade. Wilhelm Weil has doubled his press capacity after the 2006 experience, and in light of what he sees as an inevitable long-term truncation of the time available to harvest, given ever-earlier picking dates. But be that theory as it may, 2007 offered a full six weeks for the main harvest alone (nine weeks, if one counts “pre-harvest” thinning and Eiswein). The results – predictably, given the track record at this spare-no-expenses estate – were impressive from Q.b.A. to T.B.A., and included a generally better-balanced array of dry wines than 2006 had permitted. Since there are 22,000 and 27,000 bottles each of the two top dry Rieslings here, by the way, it’s not as though they are rare, even though many Grosses Gewachs bottlings – including from large, famous wineries – are produced in tiny amounts. Imported by Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596 9463; beginning in fall, 2009, imported by Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255