Along with the historically-often-German region of Alsace, the Pfalz and Mosel regions are the oldest wine regions of Germany. Separated from Alsace by a small tributary of the Rhine, the Pfalz enjoys the same sunny, dry climate and soils as Alsace and the traditional style of Riesling in the Pfalz, where achieving full ripeness along with its concomitant more moderate acidity has long been assured, has naturally been dry. Along with the lack of sugar, the lack of slate soils has also differentiated its Rieslings from those of the Mosel, with a fuller body and tendency toward more orchard fruit flavors for the Pfalz and lighter body, tropical fruit and mineral flavors in the Mosel. The Burklin-Wolf estate is one of a handful of benchmark Pfalz producers with the current proprietor, Bettina Burklin von Guradze, continuing the hundreds of years of family ownership. Bettina converted the estate's vineyards to biodynamic farming in the 90s during the early years of her leadership and Burklin-Wolf was the first in the Pfalz to become certified. This majority Riesling is blended with estate grown Sauvignon Blanc and Scheurebe that is meant to accentuate, not obscure, the Riesling character of the wine and is part of an ongoing experiment to address the effects of climate change on Riesling’s flavor. Only native yeasts are used to ferment the grapes and the wine is aged for a year in neutral 3000L casks to maintain flavors of fresh apricot, pomelo and lime. There is, however, a lovely, gravelly finish that one would attribute to Sauvignon Blanc. The traditional pairings for racy and dry Pfalz Rieslings are rich and spicy dishes such as pork schnitzel and sausages, and to this we would add fresh water fish.