A remarkably crisp, quenching, lip-smacking drink. This could become my new house white. I love it, and more importantly, wife loves it.
Cool fruit and river stones, racey minerality backed by lots of nervous energy (buzz, not spritz). Slight whiff of petrol. Pineapple, key lime, green apples and pear. Chalk, slate, minerals. Incredible balance between the acidity and the sweetness.
Had it with sushi on Saturday, BBQ pork on Monday and Salmon tonight. Paired great with everything.
A “buy the case” purchase. An outstanding Kabinett.
I should add, but for this wine, I’ve had a crappy 2 days!
In one day (yesterday), a late afternoon thunderstorm with micro-bursts, ripped off about 20 feet of roof ridge caps, and then 30 minutes later, my 16 year old son borrows my car to go meet a girl and shreds a $400 tire (and of course, with all-wheel drive and tires through half their life expectancy, I need to replace two now). So yesterday afternoon, in the heat and drizzle, I spend an hour changing a truck tire. Yes, takes me a freakin hour as I have no street maintenance cred. Needed a crisp white after that. Killed the bottle.
Today I worked half day, dropped car off for new tires, pick up late afternoon. Hit the local hardware store for roofing nails and roofing bull. Install ridge caps on another hot, humid, sunny day. Took me two hours. Would have been cheaper to hire someone considering time lost. Yep, needed another crisp white. Will kill this bottle, too.
The Leistenberg is a consistent winner. That said I normally buy the Estate Riesling instead, as it is drier than the Leistenberg. I end up aging the Leistenberg for 7-10 years before I drink it.
The Estate is great, too. This cuvee edges it, but I have to agree, for a house wine the Estate makes more sense. My local guy carries some higher-end cuvees, so it makes the Estate less desirable to me since I have to ship it from NYC. Were it local, I’d buy multiple cases per year.
Isn’t the Kabinett sweet? I’m not a Riesling guru but have been experimenting with a few like the Trocken and the Tonschiefer. Always looking for a tasty dry Riesling.
Rick, it is a little sweet, but it’s balanced. The acidity does a tremenous job of offsetting any sweetness. I’m really digging the Trockens by Donnhoff as well.
Sounds like a rough week Robert. A good bottle of wine, or three, sometimes goes a long way to ease the pain.
We’ve just gotten into Riesling and find I like Trocken, but others have been hit or miss as they are too sweet. Mostly Wagner Stempel, Shafer Frohlich so far. I’ve purchased some Zilliken and Schloss Lieser Kabinet but have yet to pull a cork. I’ll have to try one and keep an eye out for Donnhoff.
And for any East Coasters since I am not a fan of frozen soft crabs or pasteurized crab meat, Kabinett and fried soft crab or crab cake are a wine & food match made in heaven. The acidity cuts through the grease and the sweetness compliments the crab meat perfectly. I go through at least a case of Kabinett with blue crab of some form every year. Just avoid vintages lacking acidity.
Great stuff, but if we are putting up German wines for “house white”, mine goes to the Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken. About $15 year in and year out, and it never disappoints.
Robert, your math is flawed. You could have worked and billed an hour, pay for the tire change and roof fix, buy and drink three bottles of your wine, and still be ahead in cash!
Call me in the future if you need help with other cases of Caribbean math.