The late-picked Battenfeld Spanier 2008 Riesling CO – which won’t be sold until 2011; and for more about whose conception, consult issue 185 – reflects its ripeness and long skin contact in faintly chewy aspect, cyanic apple pit bitterness, heady musk melon, and honeyed richness. Imposingly rich and polished, I still find its rather static personality and its lack of refreshment or of vintage-typical levity slightly disappointing. Still, this is far finer than the corresponding, decidedly awkward 2007. While the residual sugar is barely above the legal threshold for trocken, glycerin, and sheer ripeness of flavors lend a very slight sense of sweetness. Whether this bottling will prove worth following for a decade as its creators Oliver Spanier and Carolin Gillot intend is a question I must leave open.Oliver Spanier – for a bit about whose distinctive sites and methods see issue 185 – harvested his 2008 vintage Rieslings from mid-October through the first week of November, and reports having performed no de-acidification.Importer: Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799