Stefan Vetter Sylvaner GK Kalbenstein 2020

Stefan Vetter has spent his career arguing that Sylvaner, Franken's historic grape, belongs in the conversation with fine Chablis, and GK is his strongest evidence. The initials stand for Gambacher Kalbenstein, a steep single vineyard in Franconia, Germany, where vines more than five decades old grow over sandstone and limestone on crumbling terraces worked entirely by hand. Vetter picks early to keep acidity, presses slowly and gently in a basket press, ferments spontaneously, and gives the wine 11 months in large wooden barrels before bottling unfiltered with a scant dose of sulfur. It opens smoky and coiled, then unwinds into pear, melon, sage, and cool herbal notes, tighter and more refined than his village wines. A benchmark for what old-vine Sylvaner can be.