Kuhling-Gillot Pettentahl Riesling Grosses Gewachs, Rheinhessen, Germany

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An overtly smoky and crushed stone aura vies with site-typical lemon and peach in the nose of Kuhling-Gillot’s 2011 Niersteiner Pettenthal Riesling Grosses Gewachs; and those characteristics inform a full, firm palate with something like the sense of relative opacity that characterized the corresponding village-level bottling. Here, though, a welcome sense of primary juiciness, accompanied by salivary gland-stimulating brininess extends to an impressively persistent finish. This almost certainly needs more time to reveal its potential, but I think it safe to assume that at least half a dozen years of satisfaction are assured. Carolin Gillot has expanded her acreage in Nierstein, and given what seems to be a dearth of growers from that village who are really on top of their game (Strub very much excepted), Riesling lovers must be grateful that some of Germany’s elite vintners who are based nearby (or, in Keller’s case, not all that nearby) have been taking custody of vineyards on the famous Red Slope, where increasingly many of the traditional landholders have in recent years sold their estates and small growers have shown themselves willing to lease after witnessing the meticulous work of a Gillot with neighboring vines. (Such willingness cannot, sadly, be presumed in the world of European wine. On the contrary, it seems more common for small landholders to resist leasing to outsiders out of misplaced communal pride.) This year’s Gillot Grosse Gewachse finished analytically extremely dry, and remained on their full lees until three days before June bottling. The result is an enhancement of fullness and stuffing, though happily at around 13.5% alcohol they evince no significant heat. (Why Gillot neglected to show me her Nackenheimer Rothenberg Grosses Gewachs, though, I can’t explain, and am remiss for having not redressed that omission.)Imported by Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799