Two Bottles Knewitz
We are drinking two Rieslings from Weingut Knewitz located in Appenheim: The Hundertgulden and the Steinacker from 2015.
Knewitz calls itself a winery by the sea. This may have been the case for earth, not even that long ago, but for us humans it has been quite a while. Today the sea is a few hundred kilometers away and what has remained are the lime soils from the former reef on which the vines grow today. This time we have two wines from the best sites of the Knewitz Winery in our glasses: a Riesling from the Hundertgulden and one from the Steinacker, both vintage 2015, so slightly matured. Let’s see if you can taste the sea.
The Hundertgulden shows an intense fruit, lots of stone fruit, some glue, wet stone immediately after opening. On the palate there is a lot of extract and a lot of draught. The structure determines the mouthfeel with a nice spiciness lingering. When the wine is on the tongue, the nose becomes more yellow, ripe and some peach is added.
The adhesive tone disappears completely over the evening. The wine becomes creamier and at the same time the acidity feels more robust. Very dense, in the mouth and on the nose. Lots of apple, still very fresh and hard to pin down. Too much happens. There is also something like sweetness, although, with about 1 gram of residual sugar and over 9 grams of acidity I am quite certain you wouldn’t call this a sweet one. The acidity is also very noticeable. Despite the time on the bottle it still makes a lot of zing on the lips and tongue.
On the second day you can feel the maturity more. Some acetone is added, some canned pineapple, yellow apple. But it does not lose the freshness.
The “Steinacker” in the glass is much more restrained after opening. In comparison to the intense nose of the Hundertgulden, the first thing you notice is a lull. One senses a little creaminess, some fruit, but not much coming out of the glass. Quite different on the tongue: here’s the action. A lot of pull, super long, straight ahead, a lot of acidity, grapefruit, bone dry, no sign of the years on the bottle.
A little air helps. The smell opens up. Interestingly, and contrary to my expectations, after the first sips you can already see some age. There is butter cake, relatively creamy, some honey, acetone and stone fruit. On the tongue, however, nothing changes, the wine remains juicy, uncompromising, slim with a really enormous length.
This does not change even on the second day. More grapefruit is added. The play between the ripe tones when smelling and the freshness and power when drinking is great fun. I think that both wines could be in the cellar for a few more years, but for me that’s pretty much to the point. The Steinacker is more of a meditation wine, needs more attention right now, has more power. And with the Hundertgulden you let the evening come to an end.