2015 Riesling Kabinett Hattenheimer Schützenhaus I Spy
Rheingau, Germany
This is our first vintage of Riesling for Kitten Swish. We have always wanted (needed) a Riesling in our Swishy portfolio and this is an incredible debut. Our Riesling quest took two years of searching for the perfect vineyard site and the perfect vintage and this 2015 Hattenheimer Schützenhaus Kabinett delivers in all aspects.
The vineyard lies just west of the town of Hattenheim, perched 100 meters above sea level and faces south south-west, giving it an incredibly sunny and warm disposition. This slight sloping to the west protects from cooler easterly winds, enabling the vines to reach incredible ripeness levels. The soils are relatively deep with a mixture of loess, loess-loam and Tertiary marls giving the vines firm rooting andaccess to ground water in dryer years. The name of the vineyard refers to the small huts (haus) used by vineyard workers to take shelter (schützen) while working the vines and also refers to the protective aspect of the vineyard.
The 2015 vintage in the Rheingau is extremely noteworthy for its fruit density and wonderfully structured acidity. The growing season was dry during most of the summer, so having the deep Tertiary marls was crucial to keeping the vines active in our Schützenhaus vineyard. 2015 will be a glorious vintage for crushing right now, and for an easy decade of cellaring. Our goal for this Riesling was for it to be incredibly crushable at all times of the day…either side of 8am. The wines shows a gush of fruit on the attack, like a perfectly ripe Ambrosia apple, while the acidity pulls in tight along the finish creating a fine sense of dryness…the perfect combo for ultimate crushablility.
Our label this year features several layers of symbolism. The glasses of the figure are there to represent the clear focus of the wine and are designed from horns to relate the growing time it took us to find the perfect Riesling. The eye is actually a ripe Riesling grape positioned to spy on you as you devour the wine, and the name “I spy” suggests you are already looking for another bottle
This year also marks the first time Kitten Swish has produced a wine in magnum. There are 120 of these monstrously delicious Riesling missiles.
It was with your little eye
That you saw it
It was with your little eye
That you wanted it
For allocation requests or a list of available retailers please contact us.