The Weil 2008 Kiedricher Turmberg Riesling trocken smells of diverse, bittersweet, pungent flowers along with salt spray and shrimp shell reduction. Saline and savory, yet underlain by a sense of implacable stoniness on the palate, this finishes with citric refreshment, but its impressive length is otherwise informed by floral and mineral complexity. I find this especially intriguing and anticipate it’s being well worth following for at least the better part of the next decade. Lasting from mid-October to mid-November, the 2008 harvest was relatively early and short by the standards of Weingut Robert Weil, if not by those prevailing in most German Riesling-growing establishments. Wilhelm Weil thought the changing ratio of malic to tartaric acid was critical during October, and that the relative increase in tartaric – and its eventual precipitation in almost unprecedented amounts in cask – is what made possible impeccably-balanced 2008s. “I think,” he asserts, “that the 2008s combine the advantages of 2006 and 2007: the stuffing and energy of 2006 with the purity and elegance of 2007.” Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255