Koehler-Ruprecht 2011 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Kabinett trocken mingles caraway, juniper berry and passion fruit in an manner that suggests to me a mingling of Sauvignon and Gewurztraminer more than it does Riesling. It displays admirable buoyancy and brightness (despite analytically low acidity) for its vintage and clings with sappy persistence accompanied by chalky, smoky and mouthwateringly saline accents. I’d plan on serving this through 2018.
Bernd Philippi and cellarmaster Dominik Sona, did not begin harvesting in 2011 until mid-September and then with Pinot Blanc as well as a Riesling pre-harvest culling. Thereafter they paused, and much of the best Riesling came in early in October, with picking ending mid-month. The existence of both Spatlese and Auslese “R” bottlings that will be released much later testifies to their authors’ high opinion of this vintage. Skin contact before fermentation and lees contact during elevage were – Philippi and Sona seek to assure me – the approaches they took to 2010 acids rather than de-acidifying. Only about half of a normal crop was harvested, and hence that work went quickly, in late October. Nearly all of the results were bottled in late August. An especially tiny Riesling crop from the Annaberg was deemed too severe in acidity even for inclusion in the 2010 Gutsriesling, and was instead judiciously blended into some 2011s to lend them spine and kick. “Gewurztraminer,” claims Sona, “just didn’t taste like much of anything in 2010, so we blended that away, too, or used it as picking crew house wine. We harvested with ‘R’ bottlings in mind,” he notes, “but in the cellar no individual casks really stood out as candidates.” There is a small amount of residually sweet Saumagen Spatlese from 2010 but somehow between the estate and me we have neglected to see that I taste it, a deficiency I hope to remedy while tasting the 2012s there in 2014.
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