2011 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Spatlese Trocken

Philippi’s and Sona’s 2011 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Spatlese trocken – like the corresponding Kabinett – offers surprisingly Gewurztraminer-like (or perhaps, in this instance, as much Pinot Gris-like) characteristics: smoked meat, celery seed and caraway being joined on the silken palate by brown-spiced musk melon, pear, rutabaga, as well as maritime salinity and alkalinity. Succulent and rich – with something akin to a hidden sense of sweetness, even though actual residual sugar is just three grams – this finishes with mouthwateringly persistent savor and should perform impressively at table through at least 2022. 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. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191