That Rheinhessen limestone, mother to the beauty of Wittmann and Keller GGs, furnishes similarly high personality Chardonnay marks a unique dexterity among German wine regions.
I was recently served this wine blind and, despite having enjoyed it on several occasions in the past, my mind wandered to Burgundy. Subtle natural touches had me leaning toward a more spontaneous and risk taking style, but there was something not-totally-Burgundian past these I couldn’t quite place. As the wine's lime and clementine flavors swelled with time the texture remained leaner and more sinewy than the Chassagne-Meursault corridor conditions us to expect.
Reduction ultimately accounts for the Burgundian connection. And here this reduction is masterfully rendered: struck match, smoked salt, stones-in-glass minerality. Mineral impressions are obvious rather than guessed at (and may include expletives, if this bottle was representative). If you stitched the flavors of a Cossard Puligny into the texture of Dauvissat’s Chablis ‘Vaillons’ you’d land in close expressive proximity.
Cheers,
Jason
