Pfalz's Koehler-Ruprecht bears little resemblance to neighboring producers nor those next door in France's Alsace. Though Riesling is the focus here, a supernatural element exists within the wines that make them stand out among their contemporaries.

The sweet spot of their holdings comes from Kallstadter's famed Saumagen Vineyard. Pfalz is home to an amalgamation of soils—in Saumagen, limestone takes center stage and bears the most responsibility for this site's crystalline nature and peerless transformative abilities in bottle. Winemaker Dominik Sona says the 2016 vintage was Koehler-Ruprecht's last late harvest as the region grows warmer from climate change.

I'm thrilled to have received these bottlings directly from the domaine! Unlike other wineries, Koehler-Ruprecht determines designations by taste rather than calculated sweetness levels: The lightest wine of the vintage becomes Kabinett while the most complex is Auslese.

Shop Koehler-Ruprecht