Description
This is the entry level Estate Riesling (which was formerly called Kalkmergl but then forbidden as of the 2020 vintage by authorities as no mention of soil types are allowed for basic wines, only village wines…) hails uniquely from limestone dominant soils at the base of the Kallstadter hillside as well as declassified young vine 1er and Grand cru parcels. It was chosen as the single greatest estate Riesling in all of Germany in the Berlin Gutswein Cup for the 2015 vintage, and has been a stalwart value hound favorite ever since. Its name refers to the kalk, aka limestone, soils in their holdings, with each morsel vinified separately, and then blended based upon comparative tasting of the finished wines. As it consistently performs, its bone dry 12% natural alcohol and 8 g/L acidity offer an ideally harmonized pinpoint precise wine of jaw dropping quality for the money….Starting our tasting off with a bang, the ’21 Pfalz Riesling is once again bone dry, but still playful and impeccably balanced in its very precise fruit/acidity interplay. Its salty limestone mineral character, crystalline stone fruit flavors, and sense of sustained perfume deliver the goods and then some. I found myself saying for both this and the Schäfer Frohlich entry level trocken Riesling: “What more could you possible want from an entry level dry wine?”. For an everyday dry Riesling option, it doesn’t get better than this….a little * awarded here.
“Partly fermented in large oak (stück), the 2019 Riesling Trocken Kalkmergel opens with intense aromas of stone fruit and lemon intermixed with reductive flinty and chalky notes that add more complexity and terroir character. Intense and silky on the refined and elegant limestone-tinged palate, this is a medium-bodied, juicy, well-structured Riesling with salt, grip and tension on the limey finish. Bottled at the end of March, tasted in April 2020.” 89 Stephan Reinhardt for the 2019, NOT THE 2021 OFFERED HERE.