We already know Kai Schätzel when he just started to stir up sleepy Nierstein. A Sylvaner made of ungrafted sticks from Hipping! That was an announcement. But his Riesling also impressed from the start. Always something different and surprising, but never wanted. He was accepted into the VDP almost in record time and easily joined the phalanx of the big names on the Rhine front, perhaps even showing the established estates a bit of where the wines from the Roter Hang could go. Experimental, uncompromising, quality-fanatical. That got Kai where he now it is: "Schätzel is one of the most exciting and interesting new developments in German wine culture", which almost sounds like an accolade, writes Stefan Reinhard for the Wine Advocat.