The Barthelmes’ 2008 Gewurztraminer Steingrubler leads with scents of bacon fat, caraway, and cinnamon, which migrate to a for this cepage surprisingly firm, bright palate, finishing forcefully and with stony underpinnings that live up to the site’s name but such as you’ll seldom encounter with this grape variety. More energetic than seductive, this is a modestly sweet Gewurztraminer that deserves to be cellared for a few years and ought to stand up to 20. Although Maurice and Jacky Barthelme continued to pick their 2009 Rieslings into October and achieved satisfyingly ripe flavors, they did so without suffering high alcohol or unbalanced sweetness. Unsurprisingly (whether or not verifiably), they implicate the accumulated experience and effects of a biodynamic regimen in these results. Equally importantly, the levels of acidity in their 2009 Rieslings are ample and efficacious. With Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer, they were forced to discharge high must weights in the form of almost universally high residual sugar, with attractive if seldom distinguished results. The Mann 2008s are characterized by particularly concentrated and positively efficacious acidity, all of the Rieslings weighing-in at what on paper might look like an excessive 9 grams or more. Not only have the Barthelme brothers been together now for 21 vintages – to me it still seems like yesterday that I “discovered” their 1988s – but they point out that most of their present crew has been together for nearly a decade, which is bound to have been instrumental in their having been able to repeatedly expand into new vineyards without sacrificing the highest standards, not to mention with their enthusiasm still youthful.Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800