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offer 108
Saalwächter
the 2022 New Releases
Chardonnay, Grauburgunder, Riesling
save $3 a bottle when you buy any combo of three wines
2022 Chardonnay - $68.95 a bottle
2022 Grauburgunder - $39.95 a bottle
2021 Riesling Kalkstein (dry) - $35.95 a bottle
{ The Coche-Dury of Ingelheim. That’s a joke. Sort of. }
Being perfectly honest, I’d say stylistically there are some striking similarities between Saalwächter and Coche: a certain density, ambition, grandiosity in a way, matched to a startling clarity, a startling force and head-turning definition.
On the other hand, obviously the Coche reference is also something of an absurdist stretch. Yet while it’s meant to get your attention, it’s also a very specific feeling I’ve had on numerous occasions, an aesthetic similarity that is there.
Truly, with Carsten Saalwächter’s wines we remain in the very curious situation of wanting to express a very honest opinion and (believe it or not) not over-hype nor over-sell something.
But the truth is, as we’ve stated before, the feeling we have tasting with Saalwächter is not unlike the feeling we had when we first tasted through the cellar at Wasenhaus. John and I looked at each other and didn’t even have to say anything. We both knew.
Carsten’s wines are simply extraordinary. Even though the amount of this wine that comes into this country is ridiculously small (this year we have 13 cases of most of the wines, to just be totally open with you), people are talking and we get inquiries from New York and Detroit and LA and Orlando, etc. and so forth.
Word is getting around.
Today we offer three absolute favorites.
With the 2022ers Carsten has what may be his greatest collection; they have amplitude and density, yet still just shriek with energy and precision. The Chardonnay is quite simply one of the best I’ve had from Germany (only this tiny estate that rhymes with “Meller” from the southern Rheinhessen maybe betters him) and the Grauburgunder is absolutely thrilling… which is a word not often associated with Grauburgunder.
Finally, a late-release Riesling from the incisive 21 vintage shows Saalwächter’s deft touch with this variety as well; this is a rarity.
Carsten is farming limestone-dense soils right in the middle of the cool northern Rheinhessen - many of the sites are rather flat and wind-swept. A few of the sites even face a bit north, thus giving the wines a whip-smart and forceful acidity, more than enough to counter the pushing fruit and minerality.
We thought about offering some sort of mixed pack but in the end, there are so few bottles of these three whites we felt like it’d be better to just go à la carte. That said, buy three of anything (we’d recommend grabbing one of each just to try them all?) and you’ll get a $3 discount on each bottle. The wines should be available to ship in later August.
As with our last offer, our advice stands: Buy as much as you can.
Stephen and Robert
