2015 Riesling Nierstener 'Pettenthal' GG 0,75l Klaus Peter Keller
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Tasting notes
“This year’s Pettenthal knew exactly when it should stop fermenting,” quipped Keller -- which was with a dozen grams of residual sugar, disqualifying it for Grosses Gewächs status. “The yields here were especially low this year,” he noted, “but in keeping with Pettenthal’s reputation for harboring underground sources of water, there was never any vine stress,” and this wine was harvested on October 4. Scents of ripe peach, fig and lime zest are overlain by enticing peony-like perfume. A satiny, palpably extract-rich palate is intensely fruit-concentrated and infused with smoky black tea, though lacking quite the youthful clarity or sheer juiciness of this estate’s very best 2015 offerings. The zesty, zingy, smoky finish projects a promising sense of energy and stamina.
Critic scores
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Still yeasty (like beer yeast!) and a bit untamed on the intense and flinty nose, the medium-dry 2015 Niersteiner Pettenthal Riesling "VDP Grosse Lage" is from a very small and shallow part with very stony soils (just 0.29 hectares yielding 20 hectoliters per hectare). The wine starts cool and fresh, very stony and flinty, with an iron-rich and still reductive nose. On the palate, this is a rich and juicy, generous and really powerful, but still elegant and expressive wine. It has lots of salt and a lingering fruit intensity. It is a powerful, but also tension-filled wine with lots of salt and stones on the tongue. Still young, but greater and more complex compared to the Hipping. Keller says that the Pettenthal was fermented two months longer, is a bit drier, but has less alcohol (12% compared to 12.5% in the Hipping). It is a very promising wine and a great Riesling for sure.
The slope is 65% steep. One 0.29-ha plot with very little topsoil. Acidity so high – even higher than the RR – that they didn’t make any bone-dry wines from these steep slopes in 2015. 20 hl/ha – lowest yield ever with small berries due to a dry summer and coulure during flowering. Total production 800 litres. Fermented in a Fuder. Ferment stopped at 10 g/l. TA 10 g/l. Total harvest was 1,100 litres so not enough to make a Kabinett as well as this wine and the sweet one. Intense green fruits on the nose – greengage and a herbal wild-ferment quality. Intensely ripe citrus, orange pith, almost Seville orange, with a minerality that feels like pepper even though it doesn’t taste very peppery. Clear and pure like fresh air but with a richness and intensity to balance the very high acidity. Spicy power on the finish without any weight. Really stunning intensity. Empty glass smells even more mineral and smoky. (JH)