Lily and heliotrope effusively scent Loosen’s 2008 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett, while almond and vanilla cream mingled with melon and apple on a palate of satiny, lees-enhanced richness and vivid buoyancy. This manages to sooth and refresh in an unbeatable if not inimitable 2008 way, with brown spices and crushed stone adding complexity to its lingering finish. Expect this exceptional value to retain its charm for the better part of two decades. Ernst Loosen insists he aims to observe an upper limit of 12.5% alcohol for his trocken bottlings, a level that one might have expected was easily achievable in 2008; but in fact, a portion of this vintage’s collection comes close to transgressing it. When it comes to residually sweet Kabinett – a genre in which Loosen has long excelled – his frequently-voiced concerns that “the real thing” was becoming almost impossible (or at least, impossibly expensive) to achieve nowadays certainly do not apply to the 2008 vintage, when his collection of Kabinetts is not only superb, but also lively and feather-light. Indeed, the whole 2008 Loosen Oeuvre – while consisting of fewer wines than usual, with its nobly sweet selections even more (and more spectacularly) focused than usual on Pralat – is superb. What’s more, even cellarmaster Bernard Schug voiced his amazement at just how little sweetness most of the residually sweet wines display.Importer: Loosen Brothers, Portland, OR tel. (510) 864-7255