From: Rheingau, Germany
Varietal: Riesling
Taste: The 2022 August Kesseler 'R' Riesling Kabinett is a delightful everyday sipper that offers a harmonious balance of fruit, minerality, and a refreshing zest. On the nose, this charming Kabinett presents an enticing bouquet of ripe fruits, aromatic apples, and juicy peaches, while crushed mineral tones add complexity and depth.
As you take a sip, the palate comes alive with mouth-watering flavors of lemon, grapefruit, and delicate white florals that mingle effortlessly with the wine's inherent mineral notes. Its well-structured body boasts a delightful effervescence that positively shimmers, providing a refreshing and delicate experience on the palate.
This light-bodied Riesling is an easy-drinker that effortlessly quenches your thirst for wine, making it an ideal companion to dishes such as chicken, turkey, salads, fish, and seafood. Its accolades speak for themselves, earning the prestigious #48 spot on Wine Spectator's Top 100 list for 2022.
Pairing: This wine is excellent on its own as a crisp aperitif, but it would also pair wonderfully with a fresh salad, Pad Thai, or a range of fish and seafood dishes from sushi to spicy shrimp. Why not combine two of those ideas and make Mark Bittman’s Spicy Shrimp Salad with Mint featured in NYT Cooking’s The Minimalist: The Essence of Shrimp. Makes 4-6 servings.
The grapes for this wine are sourced from vineyards in Lorch, Rüdesheim, Hattenheim, Erbach, and Eltville. The soils are composed of slate, quartz, loess and loam. Outstanding growing conditions in the Rheingau combined with vines of an average of 25 years provide an optimal foundation to produce a great wine.
After being gently pressed, the Riesling is fermented and vinified in temperature controlled stainless steel vessels of various sizes. During this process, it is most important to preserve the characteristics of the terroir until bottling and blending by strictly keeping the different lots separate.
This is a Kabinett Riesling, which is classified as Prädikatswein (Qualitätswein and Prädikatswein are wines with protected designations of origin and specific growing/winemaking rules). The Prädikat system is basically a level of classification based on the ripeness of the grapes when they are harvested. Kabinett is the first level, meaning that it is at the lightest end of the spectrum and the grapes are picked at ripeness levels of 67-82 oechsle (the German scale of measuring grape sugars/ripeness). The higher the number, the higher the potential alcohol, or sweetness in the wine itself. [Yes, German wine is sometimes confusing…]
