Battenfeld-Spanier Hohen Sulzer Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs

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Battenfeld-Spanier's 2009 Hohen-Sulzer Kirchenstuck Riesling Grosses Gewachs is - I daresay 'predictably' - more prominently, even brusquely piquant than its 'village-level' counterpart. Peach kernel, apple pip, toasty nuttiness, and citrus rind are encased in a glossy-textured yet otherwise rather unyielding palate, with ashen and chalky mineral notes adding to an overall sense of austerity. Thankfully and less predictably, this doesn't give a heavier impression than its already relatively full-bodied village counterpart, but despite impressive sheer persistence, I find no fruit juiciness or charm in such a wine. I would have to wait for more of a track record to accumulate before being convinced that this will be worth following for more than half a dozen years. Oliver Spanier opines that he would prefer in future to be able to release his Grosse Gewachse only in the spring following their late summer bottling, believing they would then show more expressively and generously. Oliver Spanier - for information about whose distinctive sites and methods consult especially my report in issue 185 - harvested until November 3, 2009, allowing almost an entire month for optimizing ripeness. Just as at their Kuhling-Gillot estate, the team of Spanier and his wife Carolin Gillot seek to avoid bottling non-trocken wines, instead blending away any lots that finish with more than 9 grams of residual sugar. Spanier is among the many German Riesling growers who - in his words - are "working in the direction of clarity, freshness, finesse and elegance of expression rather than extract or power" (for which he used the English word). But it's one thing to talk the talk and another to walk the walk - assuming that one is attracted by these stated goals - and in that respect, Spanier is not the only ambitious German grower I have encountered whose ostensibly lesser bottlings (from 2009, anyway) strike me as living up to his stated ideals better than do his Grosse Gewachse.Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799