2012 Riesling Wiltinger Braunfels

Roman Niewodniczanski has over the past decade slowly resurrected a dryish style of riesling that he claims is the true heir to the vaunted tradition of the Saar's glorious past. In one thing he is absolutely correct: the arbitrary limit of nine grams of residual sugar for dry wines makes no sense for this region at the northern cusp of ripeness in Germany. In 2011 he chose to label his single-vineyard bottlings as Grosses Gewächs because they fit that bill. This year, they were a touch on the off-dry side. A hint of residual sugar has seldom done any damage to a great German riesling, though. The Pergentsknopp, a parcel of 100-year-old ungrafted vines in the Scharzhofberg vineyard, was my best off-dry riesling of the vintage and would have shown equally well among the Grosses Gewächs. (www.vanvolxem.com) Also recommended: 2012 Riesling Schiefer (86), 2012 Riesling Saar (88), 2012 Wiltinger Goldberg Riesling (88).