Koehler-Ruprecht Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Spatlese Trocken, Pfalz, Germany

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An aromatically intense, ester-rich mingling of plum distillate and corn mash on the nose of Koehler-Rupprecht’s 2009 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Spatlese trocken will have you out searching for Philippi’s still. Pungent ginger and resinous, spicy, wood-like inflections (though like most wines from this estate, it was raised in old fuder) add further interest on a palate that collects more than enough fresh corn and juicily ripe plum to convey succulence and – thanks too, to sheer extract-richness – a subtle sense of sweetness. This doesn’t convey quite the mineral nuance of the corresponding 2008, but offers more than compensatory generosity of finishing fruit. It will be worth holding for at least a dozen years. Bernd Philippi has a new cellarmaster, young Dominik Sona, who has his own fledgling winery amid the Pfalzerwald, well west of the Weinstrasse’s beaten track. Operating in Philippi’s long shadow could, one imagines, prove daunting, but Sona – who most recently worked for Ernst Loosen at the J. L. Wolf winery, and about whom the numerous Pfalz growers I quizzed all expressed enthusiasm – exhibits a fidelity to the established, highly-distinctive stylistic virtues of Koehler-Rupprecht, along with a wry humor and self-critical self-confidence that strike me as just right for his job. And the 2009 results certainly speak volumes not just for Sona’s aptitude but for Philippi’s promise when he sold his winery two and a half years ago that the wines as well as his own role would remain as before. Even though this estate is best-known for its dry Rieslings, Philippi has continued to render small volumes of residually sweet wine nearly every year. From 2009, though – he claims on account of vintage character not lack of demand – only two non-trocken Rieslings were essayed. (For an account of Philippi’s methodology, consult my previous reports. His “R” and “RR” reserve bottlings represent selected casks bottled at 10-11 months but cellared for years before release.)A new U.S. importer has still not been arranged, and it’s quite possible that Philippi will work with more than one.