The 2007 Bacharacher Hahn Riesling Spatlese trocken makes for a rather austere amalgam of lemon zest, salt, and crushed stone, wreathed in bitter-sweet floral perfume. Like its immediate predecessor (which, at 13.5%, had marginally more alcohol) this betrays scarcely any heat and shows plenty of sap in its finish, which nonetheless tends toward slight bitterness and prominent acidity (strict concentration is Peter Jost’s preferred description) even as if offers suggestion of the sort of tropical fruit character that is a signature of this site. Much as with its predecessor, I would be inclined to serve this within the next 3-4 years. The 2007 vintage was immensely satisfying for the Josts, combining as it did high must weights (but less so than in most recent vintages); ripe acid-retention; ample precipitation (for a flagship site so notoriously dry that it is among the very few in Germany to have been approved decades ago for drip lines); perfect botrytis; and a bumper crop (after several straight years of penury). All of that noted, I was still marginally disappointed by this year’s dry wines. I cannot help but wonder whether the Hahn simply promotes too much sugar in its Riesling grapes for ideal balance at legal Trockenheit. Peter Jost continues to follow a distinctive approach to nobly sweet success – honed only over the past several years – of rigorously removing and discarding in September any botrytis that might not later at harvest be distinguishable from fresh botrytis, and of favoring lower residual sugar and correspondingly higher alcohol in the finished wines than is nowadays fashionable.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300