The 1996 Pinot Gris Muenchberg offers smoked bacon, spicy oak, candied, and floral scents. This is an extremely well-made, medium-bodied wine densely packed with copious quantities of peaches, apricots, pears, and baked apples spiced with new oak. Luxuriously-textured, rich, and concentrated, it offers a superb, candied lemon-flavored finish. Projected maturity: 2000-2012.Readers who have tasted many Alsatian Vendange Tardives and have found them to be too expressive, heavy-handed, or sweet to accompany meals may want to taste Ostertag's 1997s. While this wine has high levels of residual sugar, it is neither ponderous, heavy-handed, or excessively assertive as some VTs can be. In fact, it is so well-balanced, elegant, and easy to drink that I did a double-take when I heard the sugar level that it supported. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel (510) 524-1524.