The 2004 Bacharacher Hahn Riesling Kabinett feinherb smells mouthwateringly of grapefruit, apple blossom, apple pip, and jasmine. The residual sugar is just sufficient to support the flavors of grapefruit, melon and apple as well as the wafting inner-mouth perfume. Toasted nuts, apple pit, wet stones and salt accent the fruit flavors in the satisfying and entirely dry finish. There is also a lovely counterpoint of creaminess and juiciness. This will be a great wine at table and should age nicely for 8 or 10 years as well. The Josts, incidentally, have their own notion of “feinherb” – an elastic term with (at least as yet) no legal parameters – and use it to refer to wines that are on the cusp between trocken and halbtrocken. Much more common is the use of this term for wines at and beyond the upper end residual sugar permitted for labeling a wine “halbtrocken.” There has long been a provision for drip lines in the Hahn as a controlled experiment, but Peter Jost says that Mother Nature pretty much delivered the right amount of water in 2004 without technological assistance. This is not the first year in which the starting point for Jost’s wines was a must weight legally sufficient for Auslese. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300