August Kesseler, Pfalz (Germany) Spätburgunder 2010

I showed this wine to an advanced group of wine students in a class on top red wines for summer, and it was the consensus favorite (in this practical context) out of a strong field of 13 contenders.  It is conspicuously thin and pale in color and notably light in body, but those characteristics don’t detract from its performance in the slightest.  It remains delicate in all respects through the remarkably persistent finish, but along the way it shows surprisingly expressive aromas and flavors that are almost uncanny in relation to the wine’s very modest weight.  Acidity and tannin are nicely proportioned and very well integrated with the wine’s fruit, and there are simply no overt wood notes to get in the way.  This is manifestly a wine that was made to charm rather than impress, and it proves strikingly successful.