Spätburgunder Cuvée Max, Weingut August Kesseler 2013

This cuvée incorporates all of the vintage’s Pinot fruit from Assmannshäuser Höllenberg and Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg as no single-vineyard bottlings were attempted. The stony and fruit pit notes found in this year’s basic estate bottling are more prominent here, and the smokiness of peat-like as opposed to merely black tea intensity. Tannin is much more noticeable and generates a significant, though by no means unpleasant sense of chew. Mouth-filling richness of lightly-cooked, albeit still tart-edged cherry and plum, along with mouthwateringly savory, marrowy beef stock more than compensate for this bottling’s more obvious sense of structure and its austere elements. The finish really grips. I would expect significant nuance to emerge with a few years in bottle. (Drink between 2017-2025)

Although this has quite a challenging, tannic finish, it is also seriously concentrated with fine redcurrant and sous bois character. Drink through 2030.