I was at Tawse late last week picking up my award for having the fourth best professional palate in Toronto. They poured the freshly bottled (about a week) follow-up to the wildly popular, successful, and now sold out Sketches Riesling 2007. Last year’s was a very good effort, and garnered them many awards and accolades, this year’s version is even better, proving what many will tell you: 2008 was a better year for Riesling than 2007. The nose is full of delicious fruit smells that’ll make you wanna dive into the glass: pineapple, peach, mango, grapefruit cocktail and golden delicious apple – powerfully fruity. The palate delivers a crisp, tropical fruit taste with a wonderful minerality and lemon-lime finish – and with only 10% alcohol it doesn’t overwhelm the palate. And talking about the finish this one goes on and on and on (kinda like I do in some reviews). If I were to have rated the 2007 Riesling it would have garnered a 4; for this 2008 version I’m gonna give it a 4½ (out of 5), because I want to give winemaker Paul Pender and the gang the drive to get 5 next year … something tells me they hit it. Price: $18.00 – Rating: ****½