Grilled pineapple and grapefruit, pungent herbs and wood smoke, along with a high-toned, Bernkastel-like note of kirsch all soar from the glass of Selbachs’ 2008 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese. The prickle of botrytis spice nicely accents segues almost unnoticeably into site-typical smokiness and vintage-typical herbal pungency. Moreover, remarkably for a wine in which botrytis is at play, this remains utterly transparent to almost shimmering stony, saline, crystalline mineral complexity as well as utterly refreshing. The dark, woodsy, smoky stony depths of Schlossberg are plumbed here, yet the wine is anything but austere. It should be worth following for the better part of two decades. Johannes Selbach responded to the high energy and acidity of the 2008 vintage by giving most of the wines extra fine-lees contact and later-than-usual bottling. As a champion of (in his words) “genuine Kabinett” and “drinking wine, not trophy wine” and a resister against the encroachment of high must weights and residual sugar to which the weather in most recent vintages has left even him susceptible, Selbach was predictably overjoyed both with the refreshment, delicacy, and infectious drinkability made possible by vintage 2008, and with its preponderance of Kabinett and Spatlese. Several single-parcel, block-picked (i.e. the whole crop at once), vineyard-designated wines were essayed (that from the Anrecht – within Zeltinger Himmelreich – being new this year) although at Spatlese rather than, as usually in the past, Auslese Pradikat level. In fact, it remains Selbach’s intention to very soon remove the already small-print reference to Pradikat from these special bottlings, whose focus is intended to be entirely on reflecting terroir and vintage. (Ironically, though, the reference to the sites themselves remain in very small print, because the authorities are testy about the use of geographical designations other than those of the official Einzellagen singled-out – or, to put it more appropriately, assembled – in 1971.)There are a few regional importers of certain Selbach wines, but the majority (and those whose prices are noted above) are Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300