2016 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Auslese Trocken

This wine’s 12.5% alcohol (at analytically nearly complete dryness) reflects virtually the highest achievable must weights for Koehler-Ruprecht in this vintage – barely crossing the legal threshold for Auslese – and very little fruit reached that point. Alkaline and saline sea breeze, smoky marjoram, pungent lemon zest and corn shoots with high-toned evocations of sour mash, gentian distillate and mothball make for a head-turning aromatic display. The silken, almost custardy palate brims with bright fresh lemon, sweet corn and white peach while perpetuating haunting florality. But the overwhelming and striking palate impression is of a multifaceted mineral suffusion and protein-rich savor, featuring Chablis-like suggestions of sweat, oyster liquor, chicken stock, chalk dust, and invigorating piquancy of lemon seed. This shakes up your entire mouth and milks your salivary glands. Good luck resisting the next sip, or indeed cellaring and then trying to keep your corkscrew away from sufficient bottles to insure that you enjoy at least some of them in what is sure to be an even more glorious maturity. This bottling is set to go on sale in September 2018. It’s hardly a coincidence that few dry Pfalz Rieslings today quite measure up to either the best of those being rendered by Sona and Schmitt, or the minuscule quantities of Riesling from this same site being bottled by Sona’s former boss and Koehler-Ruprecht proprietor Bernd Philippi.