This is the current release of a wild white that has NOTHING added to it and spends  over 2 years in old oak. The flavour and complexity largely  come from the ridiculously low yields. RANDALL POLLARD

The Tempe 2008 Pinot Blanc Zellenberg (around one-third Auxerrois) is prominently scented and juicily flavored with musk melon and yellow plum, tinged with green herbs, and toasted nuts. An invigoratingly tart edge of fresh fruit skin offers welcome counterpoint to creaminess of texture and an almost opulent sense of ripeness one doesn’t expect from this vintage. This finishes with admirable persistence and ought to be delightful over the next several years.

“For me,” says Marc Tempe, “2008 is a great vintage, with fine structure and vivacity,” though he was not ready to show me several of his potentially best wines of this vintage that were still in cask when I visited last November. Seldom do Tempe wines – which routinely receive extended lees contact, late bottling, and little if any sulfur in their elevage – want for richness or textural allure, and even with their vivacity, those 2008s I tasted were no exceptions to that rule. DAVID SCHILDKNECHT, erobertparker.com