With lower (10.5%) alcohol and higher acidity than is typical for this (normally nearly-trocken) bottling, the Josts’ 2008 Bacharacher Hahn Riesling Kabinett feinherb smells of grapefruit, mango, orange rind, lily, orange blossom, and nutmeg. Faintly waxy in texture; plush, yet positively billowing in its sense of lift and conveyance of floral perfume, this finishes with precisely the clarity (plenty of wet stone, spice, and flowers showing through) and refreshment that its trocken siblings lacked. It’s so lovely and dreamy now that I’m not sure I would cellar it, but it might well retain its virtues for a decade. Like this year’s sweeter version, it’s something you can’t often get now in this site as it ripens too well. Young Cecilia Jost is taking charge of the cellar here. In 2008, though, she was tied up with a commitment to harvest in Austria, so Peter and Linde Jost were still calling the shots. Given the ripening tendencies of the Jost’s great, steep, near-monopole Hahn (which is the reason Josts have now planted a site high above it to try to get back to real Kabinett) as well as the lees contact that Peter Jost favors, the 2008 vintage offered a possible antidote to high alcohol, lack of transparency or massiveness that are occasionally exhibited at this address, while permitting a later harvest than Josts have “enjoyed” (assuming you consider that the right word) in some years, lasting until November 10.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300