Winter pear tinged with smoky peat; piquantly cyanic fruit pip; and pungent lime peel, scent and flavor the Schonleber 2009 Grauburgunder S, which comes off surprisingly slimmer (at a half a percent less alcohol) than this year’s Pinot Blanc. A strong saline streak – as well as white pepper pungency – serves for invigoration in a long, subtly smoky finish. This abundantly juicy, elegant, strikingly mineral Pinot Gris ought to perform adeptly at table over the next 4-6 years. Werner and Frank Schonleber harvested through nearly the entire month of October, and noted that levels of sugar and total acidity remained fairly constant, while flavors kept improving and malic acid diminishing in favor of tartaric. Speaking of improving, it’s hard for these two vintners to much-improve their by now phenomenal batting average, but no Riesling lover is likely to suffer the least disappointment by buying bottles of Emrich-Schonleber 2009s. Especially at its dry end, this is a collection to describe which seems to call for an extended mineral vocabulary that doesn’t even exist in English or German! And in nobly sweet echelons, the small amount of Riesling the Schonlebers rendered is strikingly successful and informed by an ample if mysterious measure of sheer juiciness. About the absence of Eiswein, Frank Schonleber notes: “We had the feeling that ripeness had simply advanced too far in 2009 to justify leaving any grapes hanging in anticipation of frost.”Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also imported by Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389- 9463
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