From their monopole, the Kesselstatt 2007 Josephshofer Riesling Grosses Gewachs preserves the toasted character of the corresponding Goldtropfchen but without its nutty richness. Its combination of wet stone and citrus zest push it further in the direction of bitterness and abundant acids express themselves in a certain angularity rather than refreshment. There is also a distinct spiciness which I trace to the cask (this being the exception among Kesselstatt wines for having sojourned in barrel.) Certainly this exhibits formidable sheer concentration as well as a sense of energy, and perhaps it will settle down and harmonize with a couple of years in bottle. I don’t feel capable of handicapping its further evolution. A protracted harvest is almost bound to be especially beneficial for an estate with such enormous and widely-scattered vine acreage as that of von Kesselstatt. The acidity in this year’s collection is almost uniformly ripe, and often noticeably low. As usual, a certain austerity accrues to a fair share of Kesslestatt’s many trocken Rieslings (wines from whose labels the last vestiges of Pradikat designations have now disappeared), but happily, alcoholic heat was scarcely a problem here this year. Interestingly, the Saar wines among these were generally especially successful regardless of style. Annegret Reh’s plan in the Kabinett segment, incidentally, is to eventually eliminate the redundancy of having both feinherb (successors to former halbtrocken) and unabashedly sweet bottlings from a single site, but instead work in the direction of merely discreet – i.e. feinherb – sweetness for most of the estate’s Kabinetts. In a sweet style, the Kesselstatt Kabinetts have consistently represented excellent values with ready market-availability, whereas few of the drier Kabinetts (and virtually none of the estate’s trocken Rieslings) seem to make it to the U.S.Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel (918) 622-0424.