Schätzel | Rheinhessen | Riesling Pettenthal GG | 2018 | 750ml

Description

Product description for Schätzel Riesling Pettenthal GG 2018

Kai Schätzel sees his approach as a response to the challenges posed by global warming for modern viticulture. As early as 2008, he began cultivating the vineyards on the Roter Hang using organic, biodynamic, and sustainable methods to cultivate healthy, self-sufficient vines that are self-sufficient and not dependent on human assistance. This includes slowing the ripening process and restoring the mountains to a new balance through dry farming. The grapes for the wines are harvested according to the ‘golden cut’ principle he developed himself. Around 90-100 days after flowering, the grapes are harvested in several rounds, precisely when their colour changes from green to golden yellow. In the winery, they are trodden underfoot before being left to rest on the skins for around a week before pressing. In a good 80% of all cases, no pre-clarification takes place before the must is gravity-fed into single-barrel and half-barrel barrels, where it begins to ferment spontaneously and remains on the full lees until bottling. The wines presented in Wiesbaden and described here were specially bottled three days before the premiere; another batch is still on the full lees at the winery. Pettenthal is Schätzel’s stoniest and most closed site, and experience has shown that it requires the longest aging time.

Colour

Bright straw yellow with green reflections, radiant and clear.

Nose

Herbally spicy nose with a conglomerate of fennel, anise, lemon thyme, then lemon zest, green mandarin, quince, and vetiver. With a distinctive spontaneous note and a light bocksker on the nose, the Pettenthal is underpinned by extract-rich fruit that doesn’t dwell on primary aromatics but rather knows how to handle essences in a substantial way. It is always light-footed, fragrant, and almost ethereally floating on a solid mineral foundation.

Palate

The 2018 Pettenthal from Kai Schätzel is cool and lean on the palate, yet focused and taut, with a subtle saltiness. Contrary to its delicate appearance on the nose, it builds uncompromising pressure on the palate. With high inner tension, its ripe acidity is vertical, shaping it into a sinewy, robust experience, the youthful tannins as fine as sandpaper with a tart aromatic component. The citrus-driven fruit nestles almost leptosomely into this structure, lending it aromatic depth. Everything is reduced to the essentials, without ornamentation or frills, yet always substantial without drifting into the boisterous. A wine with great inner peace and excellent ageing potential.

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Keywords: Schätzel Riesling Pettenthal GG 2018 Rheinhessen Germany

Wine Advocate

Score: 95

The 2018 Pettenthal Riesling GG is pure and intense yet still untamed on the nose that is not exuberantly fruity yet expressive through its stony and herbal character. Concentrated yet still subtle aromas of stone fruit emerge only with aeration and become more and more self-confident but never dominate the earthy notes. This is a more and more fascinating synthesis between soil and sky. Lush and round on the palate, this is a dense, concentrated and very elegant expression of the 2018 vintage and the Pettenthal. The finish is long, complex and salty and reveals fine phenolic grip that is well-integrated into the concentrated and juicy fruit. This is a great job by Kai Schätzel, but you should be patient and not drink it before 2023 or 2024.
Stephan Reinhardt

Vinous

Score: 93

On the nose, tangerine, clementine, lemon and lime penetratingly anticipate the zest, brightness and abundant juiciness that emerge on a buoyant but subtly glossy palate. Stony and alkaline notes seem crystalline in their vibrant finishing impression, while bright but piquant citricity, smokiness and saline savor of smoked pork serve for further tongue-tingling, sizzling and mouthwatering stimulation. To state that the tension here of high acidity and high sugar is productive would be an understatement. Only by dint of rigorously targeted vineyard management and early harvest at low must weight can a blazingly bright wine like this be achieved, let alone in a vintage as conducive to high grape sugar and only moderate acidity as 2018.
— David Schildknecht
Drinking window: 2020 – 2035
Review date: Nov 2020

Producer website: https://www.schaetzel.de/home