2015 Enkircher Batterieberg Riesling

Peach and mirabelle laced with lemon and kumquat peels, fennel and tarragon strike a lovely balance between pungent and cooling aspects, a balance that persists all the way through a soothingly sustained yet animatingly juicy and refreshing finish. The merest hint of sweetness is enough to delightfully reinforce the fruit flavors. Toasted hickory and peach kernel serve for subtly piquant counterpoint on a polished, palpably lees-enriched palate whose enveloping sense of richness in no way precludes lift and clarity. Here is an instance where I perceive Kollmann’s relatively low-sulfur regimen as having contributed positively to an overall sense of lift and textural refinement.

The 2015 Riesling Enkircher Batterieberg is from 80+-year-old ungrafted vines on stony slate soils with a higher quartzite portion. Its nose combines the purity and deepness of the rocky terroir with perfectly ripe, concentrated Riesling and some lemon flavors. The wine is full-bodied, rich and round on the palate since it contains almost nine grams of residual sugar because the fermentation in old barriques stopped by itself. However, this sweetness combined with the extract and concentration will take the Batterieberg into a great future even though it takes away a bit of purity and transparency at this early stage. The finish is long and reveals a very good, age-worthy structure.