Musky, sweet peony-like perfume captures the nose from Jost’s 2010 Bacharacher Hahn Riesling Spatlese, which at just 7% alcohol backs-up its fresh white peach and apple fruit with a boatload of residual sugar, yet possesses lusciously juicy fresh lemon and grapefruit that keeps things lively, refreshing, and neither overly sweet nor bifurcated; indeed, there is impressive seamlessness to this leanly-textured beauty, and marine salinity serves for saliva inducement in its sustained finish. Look for at least two decades of contentment. Jost’s musts - largely from late October picking - were all double-salt de-acidified, and certain lots, including the Grosse Gewachse from both Mittelrhein and Rheingau, also underwent malo-lactic transformation in the course of unusually long fermentations. “We should culture and sell whatever powerful bacteria managed this,” notes Cecilia Jost jocularly, considering the low-pH medium in which they worked even after double-salt treatment. High acids also prompted some experiments in extended lees exposure and skin contact, though I fancy the latter might in some instances have accentuated a tendency toward bitterness. (Cecelia Jost had acquired some experience with all of these approaches from her time in New Zealand.) Residual sugar was left higher, and alcohol lower than usual in the majority of these 2010s.Bill Mayer Age of Riesling Selections, imported by Valley View Wine Sales, Glen Ellen, CA; tel. (510) 549 2444; also imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA; tel. (877) 389-9463