From especially stony upper elevations in its Einzellage, the Willi Haag 2009 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spatlese offers a sumptuous meld of peach, apricot, and Persian melon, a faintly yeast, milky aura taking the edge off of what would probably more refreshment and a greater sense of transparency to mineral notes. Still, its sheer persistence is impressive. (I would have guessed this to have been one of the collection’s spontaneously-fermented members, but in fact it proves to have been yeasted. It is, however, his 2009 that fermented coolest and longest, notes Markus Haag.) I would expect this to perform well for at least a dozen years and quite possibly gain clarity and interest over the next several. According to Inge Haag, the impact of sporadic October rain was greater in Brauneberg than in most other Mosel villages, and losses to perosopera and negative botrytis led to an unusually small crop (reflected inter alia in the relative absence of wines that require reference to their A.P.#s to disambiguate!) and a relatively early conclusion to the harvest in the final days of October. Must weights, notes Markus Haag, were in an unusually narrow band this year, the choice of which lots to declare as being of which Pradikat falling almost entirely on the basis of style. Fruit from the Burgerslay vineyard so often responsible for the most distinctively delicious wines at this address was in 2009 spread around rather than being dedicated to a single bottling. Numerous importers, including Atlanta Improvement Co.; tel. (404) 876 4500, Imperial Beverage, Kalamazoo, MI; tel. (269) 382 4200, Import A-N-T Wines, Venice, FL; tel. (941) 493 3000, Winebow Inc., Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620