Josmeyer’s 2009 Riesling Le Kottabe smells of fresh apricot and lime, which reprise on a soft but juicy palate with invigorating suggestions of apricot fuzz, apricot kernel, and lime peel that carry into a sustained, piquant finish. Truly dry, this wine’s 13% alcohol doesn’t keep it from expressing levity and refreshment. Enjoy it over the next couple of years. Jean Meyer, his daughter Isabelle, and son-in-law Christopher Ehrhart were clearly challenged by the 2009 vintage in their efforts to obtain dry or judiciously sweet and elegant wine of the sort that is this estate’s long-term signature, but they managed to successfully tread a fine line with a great many of their bottlings – not quite all of which I had time to taste – and some wines usually offered weren’t attempted or weren’t bottled this year. Jean Meyer has never favored late harvest and his natural inclination to pick sooner in 2009 certainly did not sacrifice ripeness of flavor. The 2008 vintage was also mixed in success, a fungal overtone in certain wines bound to at best be controversial; but the most successful (principally Rieslings) outstanding and likely to age well.Importer: Terlato Wines International, Lake Bluff, IL; tel. (847) 604-8900

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Josmeyer’s 2007 Riesling Le Kottabe Lot 233 B – representing principally a first pass on the Herrenweg in Wintzenheim and Turckheim – is scented with fresh lime, cress, and a hint of fusil oil; offers a juicy and refreshing though spare palate reminiscent of lime drizzled and herbed cucumber; and finishes with consistent and persistent understatement and refreshment as well as a telltale, locally-typical hint of chalk. This will be best enjoyed by the end of 2010. Jean Meyer and his son-in-law Christopher Ehrhart are among the many passionate proponents of biodynamic viticulture who insist that this regimen is responsible for their being able to harvest earlier. That may be all to the good if it means lower potential alcohol (and thus also potentially dry) wines of satisfying ripeness. Time was when the wines here were nearly all modest in alcohol yet analytically dry, even well after a regional trend had set in toward sweetness. And in those instances where today’s bottlings harbor residual sugar measurable in single digits, I can generally agree with Jean Meyer that – even in a botrytis-challenged year like 2006 – “the balance is ok. And besides,” he adds, “I hate to try to push to get the wine to go dry because you can fatigue it.” As for alcohol, judging by performance – even if one doesn’t look at the analyses – some of the 2007s here are challenged by their high levels, even though picking began on the first of September, the earliest in the estate’s more than 150 year history. Meyer and Ehrhart say they had planned to begin picking in 2006 on precisely the September 17 when tropic-like torrents fell, forcing on them a protracted, highly selective, and ultimately tiny harvest. I did not have chance to taste nearly all of the many cuvees (including lot variations on a given label) that – as usual – emanated from this estate in 2007, and (due to time constraints) tasted significantly fewer of their 2006s.Importer: Terlato Wines International, Lake Bluff, IL; tel. (847) 604-8900