Leitz Riesling Rüdesheimer Berg Kaisersteinfels Terrassen GrossesGewächs 2015

A note on context: Leitz tweaked the winemaking in 2015 so this ancient-terrace bottling — sourced from high on the Berg Kaisersteinfels and painstakingly restored since around 2000 — would ferment into legally dry territory, having previously sat just above the Trocken threshold and been overshadowed by its GG siblings as a result. It still carries more residual sugar than those peers, and you feel it in the texture: plush, almost silken, with juicy apple and white peach doing much of the heavy lifting. Raw almond, a lick of saline minerality, and a stony backbone add interest through a long, smooth finish. What it lacks, relative to the very best Leitz expressions from this site, is that charged back-and-forth between fruit and mineral that gives those wines their edge. Beautifully made, but a half-step short of the top tier.