Lime & Stone – 2022

Kalk & Stein 2022 from Weingut Rings is bottled unfiltered

Kalk & Stein 2022 from Weingut Rings is a dry white Burgundy cuvée from the Palatinate region that spent sixteen months on the fine lees in large wooden barrels. Shortly before bottling, it is minimally sulfured and bottled without filtration, which is why it appears slightly cloudy in the glass.

Kalk & Stein 2022 is produced by Weingut Rings in Freinsheim as a dry VDP.Gutswein, made from 85 percent Chardonnay and 15 percent Pinot Blanc. The grapes come from two Palatinate locations, the cool Kallstadt and the warmer Ungstein. With 12.5 percent alcohol, this white wine is one of the more agile representatives of its kind, despite its long time spent in barrels.

Cool saltiness over powerful creaminess

The wine smells of light fruit and a hint of roasting, and the first sip makes it clear that two forces are working against each other here.

On one side is a salty, almost austere coolness, as is regularly produced by vines on limestone. On the other side is a broad, creamy melt from the long yeast aging, which rounds off the edges without flattening them. In between, notes of nuts, white flowers, and a touch of flint emerge. The finish lingers for a long time, becoming more salty than fruity.

For veal loin, fried potatoes, and Comté

This cuvée handles heartier cuisine better than most German white wines and is therefore surprisingly flexible at the dinner table.

Veal loin with a mustard crust, fried potatoes with bacon, or an aged Comté are obvious companions because the salt and roasted aromas pick up on the chalky vein in the wine. Pan-fried char with brown butter works just as well, and if you like pasta, serve it with mushrooms and parsley instead of tomato.

Ten to twelve degrees are perfectly sufficient, as the creaminess remains locked away if served ice-cold. For a direct comparison, open the predecessor from 2021 alongside it and you will quickly notice how differently two years can taste.

The work happens in the vineyard, not in the cellar

Before the wine is even created, a lot of manual labor goes into the vines, and that is exactly what determines the quality in the glass later on.

Double shoots are removed by hand, and depending on the weather, leaves are removed and suckers are thinned out to ensure air reaches the grapes and rot has no chance. Between the vine rows, buckwheat, clover, and radish grow to aerate the soil, attract beneficial insects, and retain moisture. Fertilization is done with horse manure.

The 2022 vintage was warm and dry in the Palatinate, which is why thinning the grape zone here helped less against rot than against sunburn on the berries. Such decisions are made anew every year in the vineyard and cannot be made up for later in the cellar.

In the cellar, there is little intervention. Each variety is harvested separately, part is pressed as whole clusters, then natural yeasts take over. After sixteen months on the full lees, it is minimally sulfured and bottled without fining, keeping the slight turbidity in the glass, and with it, the aromatics. The rest of the range can be found in the Weingut Rings hub, with related bottles under white wine.

Kalk & Stein 2022 – a white wine and its specifications

• Origin Germany
• Region Palatinate
• Winery Rings
• VDP.Gutswein
• Grape variety 85% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Blanc
• 12.5% vol alcohol
• 0.1 g/l residual sugar
• 7.1 g/l acidity

Organic control number – DE-ÖKO-022 German Agriculture