Kai Schätzel Silvaner Niersteiner 2017

Drawn largely from Hipping, this legally dry Silvaner carries just 11% alcohol and feels weightless for it. Stony, cereal-edged aromatics on the nose are threaded through with iris and lemon zest. On the palate, ripe pear and bittersweet floral perfume take center stage, with oregano, lemon peel, milled wheat, and that distinctive Nierstein red-slope smokiness running beneath. The finish is juicy and sustained — fresher than you might expect at this modest weight. It falls just short of the animated tension found in Schätzel's Querkopf bottling from ancient vines in the Nackenheimer Rotenberg, but it's a polished, quietly expressive wine.