Fresh pear, lemon, and quince on the nose of Crusius’ 2009 Traiser Rotenfels Riesling Kabinett migrate to a gentle palate with juicy persistence and lip-licking salinity, whose sense of animation, lift, and refreshment makes up for its relative lack of complexity. Peter Crusuis’s 2009 collection perpetuates a welcome trend toward qualitative consistency. Moreover, not only could nobody fault these wines for lack of assertive personalities, several deliver genuinely compelling attraction. That Riesling from this address is generally best enjoyed on the early side reflects traits already exhibited by the wines that served as my own introduction, namely those crafted in the ‘70s and ‘80s under Hans Crusius, whose indefatigable labors and unforgettable wit brought this estate to international prominence, and who died in November, 2009. But Riesling doesn’t have to be enormously long-lived to still be timelessly great.Importer: Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 642 5500