The Kesselstatt 2007 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett smells of apple and orange blossoms, is flatteringly creamy but surprisingly short on pep and long on sweetness, its palate featuring litchi, orange, and caramelized apple. Despite lacking tension, brightness or cut, this finishes with a certain soothing satisfaction, and those with a sweet tooth may like it more than did I. No doubt this could be enjoyed for at least 6-8 years. A protracted harvest is almost bound to be especially beneficial for an estate with such enormous and widely-scattered vine acreage as that of von Kesselstatt. The acidity in this year’s collection is almost uniformly ripe, and often noticeably low. As usual, a certain austerity accrues to a fair share of Kesslestatt’s many trocken Rieslings (wines from whose labels the last vestiges of Pradikat designations have now disappeared), but happily, alcoholic heat was scarcely a problem here this year. Interestingly, the Saar wines among these were generally especially successful regardless of style. Annegret Reh’s plan in the Kabinett segment, incidentally, is to eventually eliminate the redundancy of having both feinherb (successors to former halbtrocken) and unabashedly sweet bottlings from a single site, but instead work in the direction of merely discreet – i.e. feinherb – sweetness for most of the estate’s Kabinetts. In a sweet style, the Kesselstatt Kabinetts have consistently represented excellent values with ready market-availability, whereas few of the drier Kabinetts (and virtually none of the estate’s trocken Rieslings) seem to make it to the U.S.Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel (918) 622-0424.

The Kesselstatt 2006 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett smells of apple, banana, and (vineyard signature) orange blossom. Juicy and refined, with saline and wet stone mineral notes accompanying a generous, ripe apple and faintly tropical fruit to a satisfying, outgoing, well-balanced (barely sweet) finish, this can be enjoyed for at least the next 5-7 years. It is among the highest-acid wines of the vintage at this estate, although not at all (to taste) obviously, let alone awkwardly so. -We organized early,- says Annegret Reh-Gartner, -and then harvested in two weeks what we usually harvest in four.- She felt her hand was forced on the Saar when many of their vineyards were hailed on September 30, but by the time the crew was mobilized the heavy rain of October 3 was upon them.Various importers including: P. J. Valckenberg International, Tulsa, OK; tel. (918) 622-0424