A Brilliant Riesling; A Great Pinot Noir; A Note on Notes

Great wines possess a kind of intensity that flatters the nose and palate, as well as the imagination, with a comprehensive scope of sensation and character without burdening our faculties with any quality of the flamboyant or egotistical; they burn with a hard, gem-like flame -- as Walter Pater bade us live -- rather than self-immolating in the baroque…