Spanier's 2009 Florsheimer Frauenberg Riesling Grosses Gewachs is even tighter and displays more bitterness than its Kirchenstuck counterpart. Walnut, peach kernel, and crushed stone all contribute to a formidably dense and persistent but rather austere and charmless personality. A spinach-like amalgam of nuttiness, herbacity, and piquancy adds complexity to the finish. It might well be - as Spanier anticipates - that this will loosen-up and become more expressive after 6-9 months in bottle. Tasted side-by-side, its 2008 vintage counterpart definitely shows a more elegant and generously juicy cast, but that was also the case when the latter was tasted in September, 2009. It's evident in any event that this year's Battenfeld-Spanier collection offers a not unfamiliar instance of Grosse Gewachse - in the short run, anyway - succeeding in tasting more serious at the price of sheer deliciousness. I would tentatively anticipate following this for 4-6 years. Oliver Spanier - for information about whose distinctive sites and methods consult especially my report in issue 185 - harvested until November 3, 2009, allowing almost an entire month for optimizing ripeness. Just as at their Kuhling-Gillot estate, the team of Spanier and his wife Carolin Gillot seek to avoid bottling non-trocken wines, instead blending away any lots that finish with more than 9 grams of residual sugar. Spanier is among the many German Riesling growers who - in his words - are "working in the direction of clarity, freshness, finesse and elegance of expression rather than extract or power" (for which he used the English word). But it's one thing to talk the talk and another to walk the walk - assuming that one is attracted by these stated goals - and in that respect, Spanier is not the only ambitious German grower I have encountered whose ostensibly lesser bottlings (from 2009, anyway) strike me as living up to his stated ideals better than do his Grosse Gewachse.Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799