Kalk & Stein Chardonnay – 2023

Kalk & Stein Chardonnay from the Rings winery grows on two types of soil

Kalk & Stein Chardonnay 2023 from the Rings winery is a bone-dry white wine from the Palatinate, grown on cool Kallstadt limestone and warmer Ungstein variegated sandstone. It spent fifteen months on the full lees in large wooden barrels before being bottled unfiltered.

Kalk & Stein Chardonnay 2023 is a dry VDP.Gutswein from the Rings winery in Freinsheim, pressed from pure Chardonnay from organically farmed vineyards around Kallstadt and Ungstein. In previous vintages, Pinot Blanc was included in the blend, but this one stands on its own. At 12.5 percent alcohol, it remains lean, and you would be hard-pressed to find a drier white wine.

Yellow fruit, wild herbs, and cool limestone

On the nose, ripe yellow fruit sits alongside notes of wild herbs, and you can tell right away that this Chardonnay isn't aiming for butteriness, but for tension.

On the palate, it becomes cool and almost lean, carried by a linear acidity that gives it its upright posture. The turbidity you see in the glass is part of the character and not a flaw, but rather a result of it being bottled unfiltered. The finish remains salty and long, with a fine mineral edge.

The double resonance in the name is provided by the soils. The Kallstadt limestone barely retains water and forces the vines to dig deep, which imparts coolness and salt to the fruit, while the Ungstein variegated sandstone retains heat and provides for a round, creamy side. Together, they create a white wine that remains fresh while still possessing fullness.

Pairs with roast veal, aged cheese, and fried fish

A wine of this style needs a counterpart with some fat and roasted aromas because its acidity does its best work there.

Classically, it goes well with roast veal in a light sauce, pan-fried zander, or an aged mountain cheese, whose saltiness picks up the limestone streak in the wine. It shows best when served at around 10 degrees; it closes up when poured straight from the fridge. An opened bottle keeps for two days in the fridge and actually becomes rounder in the process. For those looking to compare, place the Kalk & Stein 2022 with its share of Pinot Blanc next to it.

Fifteen months on the full lees in large wooden barrels

Every grape variety at Rings is harvested separately, fermented separately, and only blended together shortly before bottling, and with the 2023 Chardonnay, it remained a single wine.

The grapes were brought to the cellar by hand, some of them as whole clusters in the press. Natural yeasts then initiated spontaneous fermentation without any store-bought additives. Subsequently, the wine rested for fifteen months on the full lees in large wooden barrels, which gives it texture without making it taste like wood.

It is minimally sulfured shortly before bottling; fining and filtration do not take place. Andreas and Steffen Rings work in their vineyards with cover crops of buckwheat, clover, and radish, and use horse manure as fertilizer, certified under DE-ÖKO-022. Like the entire assortment, you can also find their vineyard-designated wines in the Rings winery hub. You can hear fifteen months of patience in this wine.

Kalk & Stein Chardonnay 2023 – a white wine and its values

• Origin Germany
• Region Palatinate
• Winery Rings
• VDP.Gutswein
• Grape variety Chardonnay
• 12.5% vol alcohol
• 0.0 g/l residual sugar
• 7.0 g/l acidity

Organic inspection number – DE-ÖKO-022 German Agriculture