Another example of Attmann’s ambitions and experimentalism is a Deinhard (Von Winningen labeled) 2008 Sauvignon Blanc trocken grown in chalk soils at Leistadt, next to Kallstadt and vinified in three barriques. Since Sauvignon is all the current rage in the Pfalz, Attmann figured at least go for a soil type with known affinities for this grape; pick when the fruit is truly ripe (even though that meant high alcohol); and vinify for guts and character. (The juice went dirty into the barrels, and the wine was not racked until bottling.) The scents of caraway, parsnip, grapefruit rind, maracuja, passion fruit, mint, and catnip almost make my head spin. Lush, broad, yet invigorating thanks to its persistent pungency, and with bitterness of apricot kernel added to its tactile intensity and cling, this represents so much Sauvignon that oak is the last thing to occur to me. Who knows how it will age, but if one must consume German Sauvignon Blanc, let it be this exercise in audacity! For general updates on the change of ownership and radical recent developments at this venerable estate, I refer readers to my report in issue 185. The official winery name is now Von Winning and the Dr. Deinhard label will be used only for selected wines, not including any of the ostensibly top dry bottlings. I have conjoined the names, and continued to use Dr. Deinhard as a shorthand, because that is still how this winery is routinely referred to (even inside Germany), and readers should simply be on the lookout for either of these names on a label as an indication that it came from the winery in question (and, what’s more, is worth tasting). Young wine-geek-as-director Stefan Attmann – another of the many protegees of Hans-Gunter Schwarz, whose friend Joachim Niederberger now owns the winery – is attacking his work here with frenetic passion, but you have only to taste the latest crop of wines to recognize what discipline and determination he and his vineyard manager Joachim Jaillet (with whom I toured their sites) also bring to their jobs. Aspects of vinification worth bearing in mind are skin contact; near-absence of sedimentation; largely spontaneous fermentation; absence of fining; and filtration only immediately before bottling. (Common practice with German Riesling is still to filter at least twice.) “No risk, no fun,” is among Attmann’s mottos, though as he pointed out, the low pHs and cool weather of 2008 improved one’s odds. The U.S. importer, incidentally, offered last year a much extended range of 2007s, so that with two exceptions the stateside prices for wines of the 2008 vintage have not been set, although many can be expected to arrive here in the course of 2010. Precisely which wines of Deinhard will in future be bottled as Grosses Gewachs remains up in the air. The winery is promoting several individual parcels – i.e. not official post 1971 Einzellagen – for this status.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300