Loosen’s 2008 Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Alte Reben Grosses Gewachs represents the latest re-naming of his Wurzgarten trocken (formerly Spatlese trocken). Cilantro and kiwi in the nose lead to a juicy, pungently herbal and piquantly nutty palate distinctly underlain by wet stone. A longer stay on the fine lees in cask than predecessors of this bottling usually received has resulted in a subtle sense of waxy, creamy textural interest and no doubt enhanced the wine’s nuttiness. Here the nearly 13% alcohol is well-buffered and the acidity a spring to juiciness and (for a wine labeled “Grosses Gewachs”) surprising levity. Will this be worth following past its first decade? A few of its Spatlese trocken predecessors have been, but shall simply have to see. Ernst Loosen insists he aims to observe an upper limit of 12.5% alcohol for his trocken bottlings, a level that one might have expected was easily achievable in 2008; but in fact, a portion of this vintage’s collection comes close to transgressing it. When it comes to residually sweet Kabinett – a genre in which Loosen has long excelled – his frequently-voiced concerns that “the real thing” was becoming almost impossible (or at least, impossibly expensive) to achieve nowadays certainly do not apply to the 2008 vintage, when his collection of Kabinetts is not only superb, but also lively and feather-light. Indeed, the whole 2008 Loosen Oeuvre – while consisting of fewer wines than usual, with its nobly sweet selections even more (and more spectacularly) focused than usual on Pralat – is superb. What’s more, even cellarmaster Bernard Schug voiced his amazement at just how little sweetness most of the residually sweet wines display.Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255