Weingut Seitz Riesling Auerbacher Fürstenlager Auslese Trocken

I previously tasted this exceptional and intriguing Riesling -- "lemony, spicy, and even smoky" -- in August 2018, and it's as good as ever, featuring outstanding length, complex minerality, including salinity, building through the palate, and fruit bathed in honey and doused in white pepper. It's still quite lemony and tart, but peach and pineapple provide a sense of fleshy contrast. It's also solidly in the 90-91 range, and it could probably continue to develop, and improve, for another 5-10 …

From Bensheim-Auerbach in the Hessische Bergstraße region, this fantastic wine straddles the dry-sweet divide with exceptional poise. It's "trocken" (dry) but also an "auslese" (late harvest), and the ripeness provides just enough sweetness to balance the dryness. There's complex minerality that resembles that found in world-class Mosel Riesling, along with elegant fruit -- notes of lemon, pineapple, peach, apricot, and, on the finish, grapefruit, with citrus pith adding mild bitterness and really rounding out the overall harmony. With time, the …