Lukas Hammelmann - ZIMKAES Riesling Trocken 2023 750ml (11.5% ABV)

tightly-wound, ageworthy dry Riesling from a young under-the-radar producer in the Pfalz. Let this get a bit of air and warm up a bit before enjoying. Aromas of crushed stone and lime peel, more smoky gun flint notes emerge on day 2, lean and light to medium bodied, bracing acidity, crisp and clean finish, shy and acid-driven at first, eventually a bit of stone fruit is revealed. Lukas tends to press directly; the wines ferment in used barrels of all sorts of sizes and ages. The basic estate wines and village-level wines are bottled after one year unfiltered. As they can sometimes be delicately cloudy, Lukas bottles them as “Landwein” so he doesn’t have to have them approved by the local tasting board. The result of this, however, is that he cannot use the village names, thus his village of Zeiskam has to become “Zimkaes”  Lukas Hammelmann is one of the most exciting stories in German wine.  In many ways Hammelmann presents a forceful rebuke, a dramatic counter-narrative to the more fa