2018 Kanzemer Altenberg Kabinett
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Tasting notes
Picked at an exceedingly modest 80 degrees Oechsle, so that it combines utmost levity with balanced sweetness (despite harboring 55 grams of residual sugar), this “regular” Altenberg Kabinett (there is again also an auction Altenberg Kabinett A.P. #5) colorfully features apple, peach, cherry and lime in fragrant and luscious collaboration. The feel is polished, almost creamy, and the lingering finish is at once soothing and refreshing, and invigoratingly tangy, herbally nippy and piquant. The sense of transparency to underlying wet stone makes for an almost kaleidoscopically shimmering fruit and mineral interaction.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
Aromas of chamomile flowers and lemons, as well as grapefruit. This has a sleek and focused feel with succulent, elegant and taut style on the palate. Lemon and white-peach flavors abound. Superb. Drink or hold.
From lower plots at the bottom of the steep slope, the 2018 Kanzem Altenberg Riesling Kabinett offers a ripe yet finely flinty bouquet with crunchy slate and some tropical fruit aromas. On the palate, this is an expressive, complex, terribly pure and salty, lingeringly mineral and tensioned Kabinett with a crunchy, mouthwatering taste and acidity. This is gorgeous a Kabinett. But like the whole Kabinett series, it's still somewhat untamed since it fermented with wild yeasts and stopped early when the nobler wine yeasts did not take over the leading role of fermenting. 7.5% alcohol. Tasted from AP 4/19 in June 2019.
Delicate and tastes much crisper than, for instance, the Herrenberg. Actually almost painful acidity. Needs lots of time. (JR)