Niersteiner Riesling Kabinett VDP Erste Lage 2021 – Schätzel

The successor to the Nierstein Kabinett Local Wine is now called From the First Layers and it comes 80 % from the Hipping and 20 % from the Pettenthal. The grapes come from the first passages of the harvest. The grapes were crushed with feet and given a standing time of two days. Then they were pressed very slowly over 24 hours and the wine was fermented spontaneously without pre-clarification and aged on the full lees in old 1,200 litre wooden barrels. It comprises 7.0 % vol. Alcohol, 43g/l residual sugar, 12 g/l acidity and 38 milligrams free sulphur with 160mg/l total sulphur.

medium straw yellow

In the past, this was a wine permeated with sulphurous compounds that expressed themselves in the typical Schätzel reduction note. This flinty or popping flake aroma is hardly found here. The wine seems fine and open in a still unusual way, bright and citrusy with notes of mint, sage and some basil, green apple, salt lemon and lanolin as well as a chalky, chalky note. It still seems wild, but also already tamed to some extent.

On the palate the Niersteiner Kabi very juicy, bright and clear and oscillates between vibrating minerality and a silky acidity. The wine is definitely reminiscent of apple juice and tea, seems round with less pressure than in the past, but with a ravishingly relaxed character that reminds one of Miles Davis' cool jazz phase. Especially since the acid structure is underestimated at first. It rather provides structure in the background with its sinewiness. It is great fun to discover this change in style, this development in Kai Schätzel's work.