Representing a mere 150 half bottles picked out (at the winery) from the corresponding Auslese, when the grapes for Schonborn's 2008 Erbacher Marcobrunn Riesling Beerenauslese were pressed, they revealed Eiswein-like 12.9 grams of acidity. Yellow plum and peach preserves drizzled with fresh lemon and sprinkled with salt are both the primary aromatic and palate impressions one takes away from this ultra-bright yet enormously sweet concentrate. Touches of fruit skin and pit offer further contrast to the sheer sweetness, and a sense of nut paste emerges as the wine opens. This creamy, enveloping, and buoyant B.A. manages to retain a sense of primary citrus freshness for all of its botrytis richness. I suspect it may never achieve quite the complexity or uncanny balance of the corresponding Auslese, but then, it's even earlier days - comparatively speaking - for this wine, which could be expected to last for at least three decades. An April, 2009 visit to this estate - my first in many years - convinced me of Peter Barth's seriousness and talent, and revealed many wines worthy of the great potential of the vast von Schonborn acreage. Last September, I was thrilled by an even finer collection. The number of separate and vineyard-specific bottlings here (as explained - along with other recent developments at this estate - in issue 185) is nowadays intentionally limited. Additionally, in 2008 Barth adopted a very conservative approach, essaying few nobly sweet wines, and while finding his best fruit from top parcels worthy of Erstes Gewachs bottlings, he did not render parallel Spatlese trocken bottlings from the same sites as in other recent years. -Our late start picking this year, with the first Riesling on October 17,- Barth points out, -would have been considered entirely normal 15 years ago. But honestly, by the time we started, I think more than half of the Rheingau had already been picked, a lot of that wines with green, unripe notes and resulting in wines that were then de-acidified.- Various importers, including Dee Vine Wines San Francisco, CA; tel. (877) 389- 9463, Slocum & Sons, North Haven, CT; tel. (203) 239-8000, Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700