The whiff of yeastiness in the nose of Weis’s 2009 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett (from the original Neuwied vineyard) proves perfectly delightful as an accent to apple and orange blossom; pineapple and cherry, all of which persist on an ultra-refreshing, generously juicy, delicate palate whose saline and seemingly crystalline mineral notes make for uncontrollable salivation. Look for 15 or more years of delight from this quintessential Kabinett and outstanding value, whose sweetness seems impeccably balanced despite its fully 50 grams of residual sugar. Despite Weis’s laudatory comments about Bockstein this vintage, he still sells its wines at the customary lower price than those of Goldtropfchen. Nik Weis thinks 2009 – in which his team harvested well into November – really demonstrated the cumulative effects from a decade of intensively “in gardener’s fashion” hoeing the soil, composting, pruning short, returning wire-trained vines to single posts, and in general farming so as to put the brakes on sugar accumulation in the grapes and permit ripening to greater incipient complexity as well as delicacy. This entails inter alia backing-off from too aggressive a green harvest when it comes to the very best sites, and leaving a few more bunches to hang for longer. “Anytime you’re in a position to harvest a Trockenbeerenauslese from the Ockfener Bockstein, and you feel compelled to place the Piesporter Goldtropfchen before the corresponding Ockfener Bockstein in the tasting sequence, that’s a great vintage,” says Weis, echoing a traditional sentiment that Saar Rieslings are a touchstone of top quality throughout the greater Mosel region. Indeed, this collection offers the very apotheosis of Bockstein, and if you don’t think this site (or at least, the finest parts of it) is truly great – I didn’t myself until I encountered old wines at this address 15 years ago – get ready to have a conversion experience! Incidentally, Weis has bought up the rest of the original Zickelgarten within Bockstein, so that were he to win permission to re-activate that site name (retained in the 1971 Wine Law but last utilized by Kesselstatt in 1983 and later abrogated after no subsequent owners chose to declare it) he would have a really top-class monopole. For the second year running at this address – and despite the fact that fermentations were relatively fleet – there is only a single legally trocken bottling, namely the inaugural Grosses Gewachs – not coincidentally a loner as well for having been fermented with cultured yeasts in order to insure that its finished residual sugar qualified for the club in question.Importer: H. B. Wine Merchants, New York, NY; tel. (917)-402-0456

Offers enticing peach, apricot, lime, and slate aromas and flavors, with a touch of vanilla cream. Creamy, yet bright and pure, with persistence and a complex finish. Drink now through 2025. 1,800 cases made, 1,000 cases imported.??–BS??Region: Germany / Mosel Select to Add