The thousand liters of 2008 Kanzemer Hohecker Riesling Spatlese one star– from a von Kunow’s monopole nearly surrounded by the more famous Altenberg – were extremely slow to finish fermenting. Almost shockingly pungent notes of mint and pennyroyal in the nose presage a palate of piquant spiciness and tart rhubarb and apple fruit, allied to crushed stone and seemingly crystalline mineral impingements. Saline, faintly sweaty notes add to the intrigue of a long, stimulating finish. The overall effect is highly invigorating and this should be worth following for a decade or more, and unlike the corresponding Scharzhofberger, it makes sense here to give the wine a few years’ bottle age before revisiting. Although he did not de-acidity this particular wine, it was kept analytically a bit lower in residual sugar than von Kunow’s two other 2008 Spatlesen. His comment: “Even if it had 100 grams, with this wine it would still have tasted like ‘too little’ residual sugar, and you have to stop somewhere!”The inherent delicacy of 2008 and its efficacious acidity that in principle permits the promotion of residual sugar and low finished alcohol, would seem to have been right up Eberhard von Kunow’s alley. That said, he professed satisfaction with a vintage in which he finished picking by the end of October and bottled no wine above Spatlese, “because,” as he put it, “we have been so spoiled by recent years, why try to stretch just to produce another Auslese?” Furthermore, Von Kunow performed de-acidified both in must and young wines, insisting that even so, the pH levels in 2008 remained relatively low and the percentage of tartaric acid high, so that the wines would remain very stable in bottle and possessed of liveliness and cut.Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA 800 596 9463
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