From the granite-based but geologically-complex Gloeckelberg in Rodern, Koehly’s 2005 Pinot Noir displays spiced purple plum and blackberry on the nose, fills the mouth with satisfyingly ripe, rich, juicy fruit underlain by notes of dark chocolate, and finishes with restrained sweetness and bitter fruit pit notes. (The somewhat hard 2004, and gamey, raisined 2003, incidentally, were far less successful.)Christian Koehly is clearly passionate and ambitious in his pursuit of quality and his vineyards (spread almost equally among the villages Rodern, Bergheim and St.-Hippolyte, and two-thirds granite-based) are choice. But often these wines – many of which I tasted back several vintages, as Koehly has a depth of them for sale – possessed rather strident, bitter phenolics (at times botrytis-born but otherwise not immediately explicable) and inadequately ameliorated by their often high residual sugar.Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910 1990\