A greenhouse-like diversity of floral and leafy shadings in the nose of the Barmes-Buecher 2008 Gewurztraminer Herrenweg is accompanied by faintly fungal notes no doubt ascribable to low-level botrytis. A surprising suggestion of fresh Rainier cherry tinged with brown spices emerges on a substantial, subtly juicy palate. And speaking of subtle, despite 15 grams of residual sugar and 14.1% alcohol, this evinces hardly any sense of sweetness and even less heat. It finishes with a bit of rustic roughness but also with considerable complexity of herbal, floral, spice, fruit and mineral elements, and ought to be quite useful at table over the next half dozen years. As Francois Barmes was in the U.S. presenting his wines all the time that I was in Alsace last November, I tasted with his wife Genevieve and (for the first time in serious conversation with) his son Maxime, who clearly has the sharp wits and experimental spirit to harness his youthful enthusiasm. (I did not, however, ask him to play devil’s advocate in the case for biodynamics, which is by now a well-established practice at this address! For more on Barmes’ methodology, consult my report in issue 188.) Most of the 2009 Rieslings were almost shockingly low in acidity, but whether or not and if so to what degree they were thereby handicapped varied depending on the individual cuvee. Overall, Barmes’ approach to this vintage seems to have been to avoid problems from rapidly-ascending sugar and low acidity by picking relatively early, even if at the price of capturing only modestly ripe flavors. The array of 2009s I have reviewed is somewhat abbreviated, first on account of decisions the domaine made to conflate or omit the bottling of certain cuvees; secondly because a couple of Pinot Gris were still fermenting when I visited last November; and thirdly since from among a trio of whites still in tank awaiting sulfuring and bottling – testimony to the anomalously and inexplicably slow evolution of 2009s at this address – only one was in condition amenable to assessment. The 2008 collection is, thankfully, much more typically excellent.Importer: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also, a Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29