Youthfully yeasty in the nose and – like its generic counterpart – surprisingly lush and soft in texture, the Loosen 2008 Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Kabinett tastes of honey and cherry preserves, apple and lime, combining a palpable sense of extract or stuffing with that of lift and delicacy. Emphatic spice and wet stone inform an impressively long, invigorating finish. This should reward at least a dozen years’ cellaring, though it is thoroughly enjoyable today. 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

Very juicy, like biting into a fresh ripe peach. Lime and slate notes add depth as this cruises to the lingering finish. There's fine balance and harmony. Drink now through 2018.??–BS??Region: Germany / Mosel Select to Add

Give this wine some air before you serve it in order to appreciate the entire range of its dense aromatics, which flow from delicate tangerine, to peach and on into the mineral end of the spectrum. The palate is juicy, with an energizing tension between the nervy acidity and delicate sweetness. Finishes long, with a slate undertow. Try with cod in a miso sauce. ——W.E.(6/1/2010)—— 90