2008 Scheurebe Haardter Mandelring Spätlese

With his svelte, often reductive style of winemaking, Martin Franzen's wines tend to be finely chiseled. That can work splendidly with the finest dry rieslings and noble late-harvest rieslaners, but the entry-level wines here can often appear somewhat light and even austere. Where the vintage 2007 tended to mitigate those extremes, 2008 highlighted them. The simple wines showed the cracks of a difficult year. However, not only was the Grosses Gewachs extremely elegant, the two rieslaner TBAs were among the dozen finest wines of the vintage. Also recommended: 2008 Haardter Herrenletten Weissburgunder Spatlese Trocken (87), 2008 Haardter Herrenletten Grauburgunder Spatlese Trocken (85), 2008 Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese Trocken (89), 2008 Haardter Herzog Rieslaner Spatlese (86), 2008 Haardter Herzog Rieslaner Auslese (88), 2008 Haardter Burggarten Riesling Auslese (90), 2008 Gimmeldinger Schlossel Rieslaner Beerenauslese (91), 2008 Haardter Herzog Rieslaner Trockenbeerenauslese (95). Other wines tasted: 2008 Weissburgunder Trocken "MC", 2008 Riesling Trocken "MC", 2008 Haardt Riesling Kabinett Trocken, 2008 Gimmeldingen Riesling Kabinett Trocken, 2008 Mussbach Riesling Kabinett Trocken, 2008 Haardt Scheurebe Trocken, 2008 Haardt Muskateller Trocken.