Wwe. Dr. H. Thanisch Riesling Kabinett 2016

This small vineyard sits right behind the village of Bernkastel, the hundred-year-old vines clinging to a slope of weathered slate. Facing south to southwest, it’s warmer than the neighboring vineyards, the first to be free of snow in spring. That warmth shows in this 2016.

It’s as juicy as a late-season peach, its sweet, ripe fleshiness balanced by a little fruit-skin bitterness. The initial flinty notes turn to scents of orange blossoms and honey, a gentle ending for an opulent Kabinett.