Kruger-Rumpf

Up-and-comer the past few years, making more glamorous wines than ever before. Deft, appley and minerally wines from the greatest sites of the lower Nahe. Priced quite reasonably for blue-chip quality. They’re still built on a sturdy frame of acidity and soil-flavors, but they have opened the floodgates of richness, and heavenly choirs sing. The PITTERSBERGS are still nutty and slatey, the KAPELLENBERGS are still apple-y and slatey, the DAUTENPFLÄNZERS are still complex and multi-faceted, with all the intricacies of real Grand Cru style, but the fabric is finer now. You know the hoary old truism about Nahe wines being a cross between Mosel and Rheingau? When you taste these you’ll see the truth behind the cliché.

•Vineyard area: 19.5 hectares
•Annual production: 10,000 cases
•Top sites: Münsterer Dautenpflänzer, Pittersberg and Rheinberg, Dorsheimer Goldloch and Burgberg
•Soil types: Slate and volcanic soil
•Grape varieties: 65% Riesling, 10% each of Silvaner and Weissburgunder, 5% each of Chardonnay, Grauburgunder and Spätburgunder