Spanier’s newly VDP-recognized, small-production 2010 Molsheimer Am Schwarzen Herrgott Grosses Gewachs – its historically celebrated site evidently named for a black crucifix that stood there during the Middle Ages – displays a pith and piquancy as well as a palpable extract richness that come at the expense of such juicy generosity and charm as several of its siblings possess. Peach kernel, toasted almond, and what Roland Gillot trenchantly terms “the burn of minerality” in this wine’s rather bitter finish certainly make for a performance more formidable than loveable. I’d want to revisit this in a year or two before even speculating on its subsequent evolution in bottle. This year’s Battenfeld-Spanier collection – which, in Oliver Spanier’s unavoidable absence, I tasted with his father-in-law Roland Gillot – proved on the whole far more generous in vinous personality than that of nuptial partner-estate Kuhling-Gillot. And while the higher-alcohol and more aggressive phenolics in this estate’s Grosses Gewachs bottlings had in the past led me to sometimes prefer their lighter, more elegant and refreshing, if ostensibly lesser, “village” cuvees, in 2010 the crus were neither alcoholically-freighted nor – with one exception – overly astringent. (Incidentally, I missed tasting this year’s generic Battenfeld-Spanier Riesling.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799