The Zilliken 2007 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett combines lemony brightness, juicy fresh apple, brown spices, and vanilla in an refined, refreshing, and transparent expression of its site, with distinctively wet stone and salt finishing notes. It is neither the most emphatic nor the most subtle or delicate of Bockstein Kabinett bottlings, should give admirable satisfaction over the next 8-10 years.It might seem hard to believe that Hanno Zilliken could once again out-performed a vintage in the way that he did 2005 and 2006. But his having designated an unprecedented four different wines of the 2007 vintage as auction offerings certainly speaks to his confidence – well-founded, I would say – in the quality of this collection’s top end. The vintage’s “Riesling Butterfly” – stemming largely from Saarburg’s Antoniousbrunnen and Bergschlosschen vineyards (behind the Rausch, and overlooking a tiny Saar tributary) and in only small measure from the Rausch and Bockstein – was reviewed in issue 184 and remains lovely, if at present less generous than there-described. No off-dry generic estate Riesling was bottled this vintage, and with 2008 Zilliken will be seen to have made other changes in the lower half of his price list.Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463

Zilliken’s 2004 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett offers arguably simple but ravishingly generous and juicy salted apple flavors and manages to make 54 grams of residual sugar virtually disappear. (Zilliken points to 2004’s unusually high levels of dry extract as well as efficacious tartaric acidity to explain this uncanny buffering of sweetness.) The delicate yet intense finish of apple, apple skin, lemon, and slate is archetypal Bockstein. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463