2015 Meulenhof Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese

Piquantly zesty lemon and orange on the nose set the stage for a bright, juicy palate, yet one with considerable textural richness and gloss. Inner-mouth floral perfume, cooling hints of sassafras and mint, and smoky black tea add intrigue and allure that last through a buoyant, at once soothing and refreshing finish transparent to stony and smoky nuances. Certainly this bottling is overtly sweet, but unlike the corresponding “regular” Treppchen Spätlese, its sweetness is tempered by acidity, extract and perhaps other unquantifiable factors. The fruit here, reported Justen, consisted of tiny, lightly shriveled but healthy berries. His old vines, incidentally, represent parcels so sheer and rocky that they were spared the wholesale face-lifting and replanting to which the Treppchen was otherwise subjected in the early 1990s.