Alkaline, chalky suggestions, peat, piquancy of peach kernel, and an aura of aromatic wood inform the prominent yet rather rarified nose of Koehler-Rupprecht’s 2009 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Auslese trocken. This exhibits a fascinating interplay of distilled-fruit inner-mouth esters, faintly cidery evolution of pit fruits, spice, and mineral of a sort familiar from this estate. Forceful in finish, with impressive persistence of minerals and fruit pits though lacking quite the juiciness or charm of its earlier-picked Spatlese counterpart, it will still probably reward attention for more than a decade. Bernd Philippi has a new cellarmaster, young Dominik Sona, who has his own fledgling winery amid the Pfalzerwald, well west of the Weinstrasse’s beaten track. Operating in Philippi’s long shadow could, one imagines, prove daunting, but Sona – who most recently worked for Ernst Loosen at the J. L. Wolf winery, and about whom the numerous Pfalz growers I quizzed all expressed enthusiasm – exhibits a fidelity to the established, highly-distinctive stylistic virtues of Koehler-Rupprecht, along with a wry humor and self-critical self-confidence that strike me as just right for his job. And the 2009 results certainly speak volumes not just for Sona’s aptitude but for Philippi’s promise when he sold his winery two and a half years ago that the wines as well as his own role would remain as before. Even though this estate is best-known for its dry Rieslings, Philippi has continued to render small volumes of residually sweet wine nearly every year. From 2009, though – he claims on account of vintage character not lack of demand – only two non-trocken Rieslings were essayed. (For an account of Philippi’s methodology, consult my previous reports. His “R” and “RR” reserve bottlings represent selected casks bottled at 10-11 months but cellared for years before release.)A new U.S. importer has still not been arranged, and it’s quite possible that Philippi will work with more than one.
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