R and RR - The Incredibly Rare Top Wines of Koehler-Ruprecht
Koehler-Ruprecht was a pioneer in crafting high quality, age-worthy dry Rieslings in Germany way before doing so became fashionable. We love their wines and had the great fortune of re-introducing them to the market with the riveting 2010 vintage, one in which even their humble entry-level wines are savory, mineral and outstanding. Anyone who has come into the shop looking for a dry Riesling over the past year knows this already, as we've been foisting the wines on as many people as possible and waxing on to anyone who will listen. As good as these humble wines are, though, the estate is most celebrated in Germany for its incredibly scarce R and RR wines, which we are thrilled to be among the first to offer in good quantity in the US.
R doesn’t stand for any one thing in particular, but it refers to both ‘rare’ and ‘reserve’ (both of which make perfect sense, as the wines are made in exceedingly small quantity, and they are held back for many years in bottle before release, much like Barolo Riserva or Rioja Reserva). RRs are even higher quality with much smaller lots. For those interested, a further explanation of how they label the wines can be found below.
Very few of these wines are available to us and the provenance is absolutely perfect (direct from the estate). Despite their extended bottle-ageing prior to release, they taste insanely youthful right now. I can't imagine dry Rieslings that will continue to develop longer than these; expect up to 15 years for each in the cellar, perhaps more. These are really special wines and, if you have the means, we encourage you to try at least one. As these price tags are nothing to sneeze at, we’re also offering the delightful Saumagen Kabinett Trocken and Spätlese Trocken – both excellent wines that are somewhat more affordable! The R and RRs will be here later this year, while the Kabinett and Spätlese Trocken are available now.
A quick word on nomenclature:
One thing we love about the estate is how stubbornly they stick to their traditions. They're one of the only estates in the Pfalz to not jump on the GG (Grosses Gewächs) bandwagon, and they still use prädikat language on their labels, albeit in a way that's unique to them. As Dominik Sona, one of the main forces behind K-R’s energetic, youthful team tells it, terms like Spätlese and Auslese don't have much to do with sugar levels here. Especially since all the wines we’re discussing are dry, the familiar prädikats are used as terms to describe the character of the wine. The selection process is a bit complicated, but the short version is that they harvest in multiple passes, then select what's going to be Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese based on tasting the barrels in the July following the harvest; the lightest and most refreshing wines become Kabinett, the most mineral are deemed Spätlese and the most deep and complex are declared Auslese. Additionally, two passes in the vineyard are dedicated to collecting berries of particular phenolic character: tiny, perfect, golden berries are selected for a Spätlese ‘R’ barrel and even smaller, amber-colored berries with no pips are selected for Auslese ‘R.’ If these barrels don’t live up to expectations, they are blended down into the lower cuvèes. and if they are better than expected, an ‘RR’ is born. Prior to release, the various reserve wines are held back in the cellar for late release: Spätlese ‘R’ for 4 years, Spätlese ‘RR’ for 5, Auslese ‘R’ for 6, and Auslese ‘RR’ for 7 years.
