Emrich-Schönleber, Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen, Riesling trocken, 2007

May the day never come when streamlined wine marketing gets rid of the german custom of labelling wines by place of origin and vineyard name. Yes, those make for clumsy label design. Yes, they are phonetically intimidating to non-german speakers. But here's their great glory: The best of them already say everything that can be said about a wine more evocatively than anything a wine marketing agency could dream up. Take "Frühlingsplätzchen", a well-known vineyard of Monzingen, in the Nahe region. This could be translated either as "the little springtime place in Monzingen", or as "the Monzingen springtime biscuit". Isn't that wonderful?

Now you don't need to have that springtime place in your mind to go to. You can have it in your glass! Let's go there right now, shall we?

Medium straw-coloured, even a few tiny carbonic bubbles left. A wonderfully clear Riesling smell, peach, ripe apple, herbs, a mosellesque bit of slatey stink. Ripe fruit on the palate as well, but with assertive lemony acidity and deep minerality, rounded out by the tiniest hints of caramel and honey from the onset of maturity.

A very elegant and classy Riesling, and true to its vineyard name, too.