The Kreydenweiss 2009 Gewurztraminer Kritt – like its 2008 counterpart – incorporates just enough residual sugar to support its fruit and assuage its slight tendency toward bitterness, but without becoming obvious, let alone obtrusive. And in this instance, one would not have wanted to lower the residual sugar for the sake of rising alcohol, which is already at 14.5%. As Antoine Kreydenweiss emphasized, getting a good balance was tricky in general in 2009. There is a lovely creaminess. Mirabelle and litchi are laced with iodine and citrus rind in this soft, expansive Gewurztraminer that finishes with fine persistence if far short of the focus and complexity of its 2008 counterpart. Plan tentatively on enjoying it over the next 4-6 years. Antoine Kreydenweiss is now running his family’s Alsace domaine on an ongoing basis, while his father Marc concentrates on their property in the Costieres de Nimes. I was dismayed – especially in view of such high-quality 2009s and 2008s – to learn that this justly-renowned domaine for the time being no longer has a U.S. importer. Most of the 2008s received 15 months’ elevage. The 2009s were all harvested early even by vintage standards and harbor nuances not found in most Alsace wines of their vintage, being at times capable – as Antoine Kreydenweiss had remarked of his 2008s – of projecting a sense of their sites without obviously revealing their varietal identity. I did not taste several slowly-evolving 2009s, including a Clos Rebberg Pinot Gris that was still fermenting when I visited last November.No current U.S. importer.