The Schonleber 2008 Monzinger Riesling trocken displays remarkable depth as well as refreshment for an entry-level bottling, and as such represents extraordinary value. Peach kernel, saline, alkaline, and crushed stone notes accent a juicy, transparent core of white peach, orange, and red currant. This finishes with lift, clarity, and elegance. Subtle, Chablis-like suggestions of petrol, crushed stones, and lemon rind join the bracing array of aromas in the empty glass. Enjoy it over the next 4-5 years. It incorporates the fruit of diminutive Rosenberg behind town and away from the river; pre-harvest in parts of Halenberg; as well as the pickings from young wines in some other excellent locations. Werner and Frank Schonleber are another Nahe dream team whose amazing performance in 2007 has been equaled in 2008. “I wouldn’t call it a vintage with the emphasis on fruit,” says Werner Schonleber, “but rather on a pronounced, saline minerality. And there was no great selection of nobly sweet wine this year, because every three or four days it would rain at least a little bit.” He offers as “a very simple explanation” of this pronounced minerality the classic one adduced by growers (whether or not scientifically supportable) that the vines better “assimilate mineral stuff” when mild weather and plenty of moisture grease – as it were – the wheels of plant metabolism. And such vintages always boast measurably high levels of dry extract; the question remains, has that – as most growers believe – anything to do with their expression of flavors for which we feel compelled to employ mineral vocabulary?Importers: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608-9644; Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463