Kallstadter Saumagen<\/a>, located west of Kallstadt, is probably not as closely associated with any other winery as it is with K\u00f6hler-Ruprecht. At least in my mind, the two are almost synonymous, even though other vintners of course press wines from the Saumagen, which, with its roughly 40 hectares depending on the source, provides enough area for it. K\u00f6hler-Ruprecht farms just over 12 hectares of vines, but not all of them are in the Saumagen. The winery offers dry Riesling across the Pr\u00e4dikate, and the Sp\u00e4tlese lies pretty much in the middle. At least, if you ignore that some versions also exist with an extra R.<\/p>\n2016 is quite shy at the beginning. Yellow fruit, a touch of maturity that I perhaps only smell because I expect there should be some maturity by now. There are some floral notes and a bit of stone. As is often the case, this doesn\u2019t really prepare you for what comes next. Because the first sip blows you away. There is some real drive to it. It pulls the tongue up, the cheeks inward, and the saliva right along with it. It\u2019s ultra juicy, with super high freshness that is only replaced by a bit of maturity at the very back of the tongue. I can\u2019t quite put into words why it tastes mature, but very young Riesling never feels like this after swallowing. The structure, the texture in this form, that only comes with time in the bottle. But you don\u2019t have that for long, because the next sip sweeps powerfully over it again. This is incredibly good. There\u2019s citrus fruit, some white citrus pith, and it gets even juicier with every sip.<\/p>\n
After the wine was already singing on the first evening, it doesn\u2019t really surprise me how unchanged it goes into the second. The nose picks up exactly where it left off. Quiet, typical Riesling, but restrained. The creaminess you get now when drinking wasn\u2019t there on the first evening. More buttermilk than butter, and bright light yellow instead of orange, but a bit more mature than on the first day. That doesn\u2019t detract from the juiciness. Yuzu, lime, pineapple. This is so, so good right now, and although I\u2019m spoiled by the 2016 vintage anyway, I\u2019m surprised by how much I like it. This has to be one of the best matured Rieslings on this table so far. Although I don\u2019t really want to say matured. Not so much because of those who would cry out that 2016 doesn\u2019t deserve the attribute matured at all, but because it simply doesn\u2019t taste matured in the slightest yet. I do stand by this: For the vast majority of wine drinkers on this planet, a nine-year-old white wine is not matured but old. That\u2019s almost a decade, and I know enough people who wouldn\u2019t touch it with a ten-foot pole. Educational work in such cases is not done by lecturing. But this wine here, it could change minds.<\/p>\n
2017 doesn\u2019t have an easy time of it. In fact, I can\u2019t recall a single mini-vertical in which 2016 didn\u2019t completely outclass the rest. This wine is also rather quiet on the nose. But very, very different. The fruit is riper, almost orange, somewhere between multivitamin juice and an exotic fruit basket. There\u2019s no stone, but instead apricot and some butter. It feels a few years older, even though it actually has one less under its belt. And it\u2019s the same on the palate. The acidity is softer, the fruit more orange, and it lacks drive. At least in comparison. Because next to what the \u201816 fires off, the \u201817 just seems tired. You really notice this when you first try the \u201817 after a half-hour break. It\u2019s good, really good, it just suffers from how great the other wine is.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless the 2017 also makes it stably into evening number two. I even like it a little more on this second evening. The fruit has become even more exotic, mango, more pineapple and now also more freshness. It still can\u2019t really hold its own in a direct comparison, but it has moved closer. There\u2019s blood orange, grapefruit, and now a lot of freshness when drinking. If it takes another step like this on the second evening, it will still be nowhere near the end of its maturation potential. Just open it on its own. Or at least not next to 2016.<\/p>\n
In any case, I am reconciled and reassured. The 2015 almost-sherry was a downward outlier. Just bad luck. Natural product. You\u2019re just not in it, unlike the tree bark.<\/p>\n
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