2012 Riesling Schlehdorn trocken

Peter Jakob Kühn is not one to say a lot. He lets his wines do the talking. Perhaps that is not the right word, as when the pieces come together they often sing. Yet whenever I sit in the estate's wood and glass tasting room gazing out the window onto their vineyards in Oestrich, I am surprised at how his outstanding Rieslings take form. Peter Jakob and his son Peter Bernhard were early believers in biodynamics, wild yeasts, low sulfur and even the use of malolactic fermentation to reach each wine’s “inner stability,” as he calls it, but they approach their work humbly and essentially allow each wine to make itself. However, I was often a bit confused by the almost "orange" style of his single-vineyard dry Rieslings, a rather forced expression that struck me as diametrically opposed to the purity found in both the simple dry Jacobus, which offers excellent value, the noble late harvest wines. In 2013, they shortened the cold soaks on wines such as Schlehdorn because they were afraid the wines might become tainted by botrytis. These Rieslings are only released a year later anyway, which is why I portray the more mature 2012s here. These wines remain a touch enigmatic, but across the board no one in the Rheingau has been more consistently making such excellent Rieslings over the past three years than this estate.