2016 Emrich-Schonleber - Monzinger Fruhlingsplatzchen Riesling Spatlese

White peach, red raspberry and lime are garlanded on the nose with honeysuckle and lily-of-the-valley. The creamy, delicate palate is correspondingly saturated with lusciously juicy fruit and seductive inner-mouth perfume. It’s hard to imagine a more winsome combination of textural caress, levity and vivacity than is conveyed by this Spätlese, and that impression carries into its lingering finish. It will be interesting to see whether a mineral dimension emerges with time in bottle, but even if that doesn’t happen, this bottling represents a superb achievement. (As was the case last year, production of this beauty was lamentably small in deference to the far greater demand among the Schönlebers’ customers for dry Riesling, especially Grosses Gewächs.)