From largely healthy fruit in a single, 65 year-old parcel that was harvested in sub-zero conditions in late November, the Mann 2007 Riesling Schlossberg Selection De Grains Nobles L’Epicentre presents a divergence of analysis from sensory experience far wider and even less explicable than that observed in its two nobly sweet Schlossberg predecessors. There are 178 grams of residual sugar present (holding the alcohol to 10.5%); the acidity is slightly lower than in the “regular” S.G.N.; and yet, the balance here is marvelous and the sweetness, while prominent, is fitting rather than at all awkward. Peach preserves, orange marmalade, pear nectar, Chartreuse-like distilled herbal essences, and vanilla icing are the key elements in a wine that packs all of the explosive intensity of its little brother. The two wines can give one another a run for their (and your) money over the next 40 years. (But there are only 160 liters of this, so your age is by no means the only limitation on seeing that race through to the finish.) In theory, one has to believe that this will be the longer-lived. But as a look at the analysis of what I would have nicknamed “l’Inexplicable” demonstrates, you can forget theory. - David Schildknecht