2006 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Spätlese (was $59.99)

96 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "The 2006 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese rises to the challenge with a performance of unforgettable delicacy, refinement and elegance, without stinting on honeyed richness. Gardenia and heliotrope offer a heady bouquet, sprinkled with framboise and lemon. Red raspberry and quince preserves lemon, salt and slate mingle on a creamy, seemingly weightless palate, in a harmonious colloquy, tartness folded into honey and vanilla cream richness. Sensational dynamism, penetrating length, and mysteriously mineral, savory, depth (there is already an unexpected note of bitter chocolate) await you in a bottle of this Brucke over the next quarter century." (10/08) According to importer Terry Theise: "Here goes; Riesling as fugue-state. Again as it often is, it seems like the primordial essence of Riesling, in sublime balance, with a gesture of pure force and another gesture of pure delicacy. This is an old soul here, a Saturnine being. On the surface there’s mineral and quince and salty botrytis, but it all roots so deeply into your being you can never pull it out. It awakens the person you are when you’re not busy being you. Here it all is, time and love and sorrow and gratitude, the pool from which we drink when our mere lives seem to fail us." SOS: 1 (10-33 years) +++