Weiser-KünstlerRiesling Schlossberg Kabinett 2018 (750ml)

The 2018er Trarbacher Schlossberg Riesling Kabinett was harvested at 92° Oechsle on the original Schlossberg hill, and was fermented down to fully fruity-styled levels of residual sugar. It offers a delicately broad nose made of coconut, apricot blossom, strawberry, dried herbs and fine spices. The wine develops the playful presence of a Spätlese on the palate, where apricot blossom and dried herbs play with the mild feeling of acidity. The finish is smooth, inviting and juicy. 2023-2038. 91.

The Schlossberg vineyard is a relatively new parcel for the couple to be working with, and for the last couple of vintages, all of this fruit went into the Estate Riesling bottling, but 2018 sees its first Kabinett from the estate from these vines. They are relatively young by Weiser- Künstler standards, being only twenty-five years of age, but they have produced a classic Kabinett this year. The wine comes in at 9.5 percent alcohol and carries approximately fifty grams per liter of sugar, to go along with eight grams of acidity. This wine had been bottled for two weeks and was a touch reserved on the nose as a result, but very expressive on the palate. The bouquet is a mix of apple, white cherries, a beautiful base of slate, bee pollen and apple blossoms. On the palate the wine is medium-bodied and beautifully transparent and balanced, with impressive filigree, nascent complexity and a long, bouncy and delicate finish. I love how this wine has a generous kiss of the vintage’s pure fruit on the attack, and then the salty slate takes over from the mid-palate back. Classic Kabinett. 2022-2065. 92+.