The history here is very important the culture of Silvaner here in the Rheinhessen is very important. Currently, the family has holdings of around 12 hectares, though Carsten is farming only about eight hectares. The Saalwaechter family has been in Ingelheim for some time an elder Saalwaechter named Paul Christian was the mayor of Ingelheim and founded the winery in 1853. More than anything else, these wines are treatises on structure. This slows down the ripeness and helps preserve the acidities you can feel it. Carsten has, in fact, made a name for himself by cultivating older, forgotten parcels just east and north of the village. Most of the sites Carsten is farming are not considered the "choice" fillets of this village, which are all west-facing and steep so as to catch as much of the afternoon sun as possible. Which is at least partly why, in our new, warmer world, Saalwaechter's wines still show such energy and structure. It certainly wasn't melting first in Ingelheim. Charlemagne built an imperial palace here presumably it is from here that he looked across the Rhine and contemplated the best places to plant vines based on where the snow melted first. While Ingelheim is not (currently) a famous part of the Rheinhessen, the history here is deep. This is the southern bank of the Rhine, directly across the river from the Rheingau - a quick swim across the river will put you in Hattenheim. The Saalwaechters are on the northern edge of the Rheinhessen, in Ingelheim. The styles are not all the same, but the ability of these growers to transcend assumptions - this is what Carsten Saalwaechter is accomplishing. premiere and it'd be ridiculous as a buyer not to do this.įor some of you, if not many of you, I predict these wines will represent something of a watershed moment - similar in ways perhaps to those first encounters with Enderle & Moll or Stefan Vetter or Wasenhaus. So here we are, Carsten Saalwaechter's U.S. While it'd be too much to say I went back to Germany in March just to make sure we at least got some damn wine, I didn't not go back to Germany not to do this. Radio silence.Īt some point early in this year, Carsten said the white wine release would be coming up. The red wine release came and went I think I even DM'd him through Instagram. All the whites were sold out, we were told, but the red-wine release would be coming up. Then the pandemic swung through but we were able to go back and check in on Carsten in August of 2021. A few months passed and when we followed up, he said only, "I'm sorry the wine is gone," in the same matter-of-fact way you might give someone the time or read a shopping list. We had a good tasting yet our first inquiry for wine was ignored. We first met Carsten in the spring of 2019. The grandiosity, the broad-shouldered fireworks, the amplitude and coiled-up energy of these wines is interesting, in a way, because Carsten Saalwaechter, pictured above, is about as cool and restrained as they come. who have preconceived notions of these grapes) - for everyone else they will simply be revelatory. Today we present two wines that will dramatically shatter any preconceived notions of what Silvaner or Weissburgunder can be (for the eighteen people in the U.S. It is beyond obvious that these wines have immense density and concentration they are clearly structured to age. They are fermented in partially new oak, so some of the wines in their youth showcase some wood, yet the acid and force of the wines leaves the palate awash in salty minerals. There is a certain swagger and voluptuousness to the midpalates. These wines have depth and in some ways - at least for our very minimalist palates - are even lavish. They are forceful, declarative, emphatic. Like a Chablis strapped to a Tesla (with a brick on the gas pedal), here are two bottles that SHRIEK across the palate ablaze with minerals and all the subtlety of a star exploding.
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