Piquant toasted nut and peach pit along with overt wet stone character mark the nose and palate of Barmes’ 2005 Riesling Steingrubler. Low-toned, stony and chalky, but with a juicy fruit matrix to offset its slight bitterness, this really clings, belying one’s expectations of young vines, and suggesting that it could – albeit in a rather austere way – mature nicely for 5-7 years.The affable Francois Barmes vocally advocates biodynamic viticulture and earlier harvesting to achieve balanced wines of juicy fruit and digestabilite. That said, more than a few of those I tasted were big-bodied to say the least, and certain of them could not handle their alcohol.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.