The 2006 Hocheimer Holle Riesling Kabinett trocken offers a lovely dialog of peach, peach kernel, lemon, almond, and charred, chalky notes. With considerable sense of sap and stuffing (and already at 12.5% alcohol despite the use of “Kabinett”) but no heaviness, this finishes with satisfying, piquant length marked by notes of stone and peach kernel. Enjoy it over the next 3-4 years. One can’t say that Gunther Kunstler has enjoyed the best of luck in recent years. This year’s move into a spacious and superior cellar coincided with the earliest and most precipitant ripening of Riesling grapes in modern history, and accomplishing the harvest and move both in timely fashion was an enormous challenge. But the bottled results show that the challenge was well met. The green harvest was as intensive and expensive as many a genuine harvest of the past, Kunstler relates, and even after rigorous triage, musts were charcoal-filtered (as has been the case in other rained-on vintages).Imported: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463