Here are some brief notes from a tasting where the occasional Riesling from Weingut Keller was open. So my best friend invited some friends to his home to drink and enjoy some Rieslings from Rheinhessen in Germany while also spoiling us with excellent cooking. All wines were served blind and for some of the flights we knew the producer, the vineyard and the vintages but not the order. And Mother of God, was this a tasting to remember! I couldn’t decide the next day if I was crying (from the lack of spitting sufficiently because the wines tasted like they did) or laughing, out of pure delight for having participated in such an incredible display of utter, sheer brilliance in Wine Heaven. Let me share the moment with you as best I can by offering some impression from this unforgettable evening.
A wine was put on the table. No information. It started up with delightful summer flowers, a mixture of yellow and ripe green apples, grapefruit, and some creaminess, indicating it had at least some years of age. Brilliant acidity combined with the stony minerality created a lift that gave the wine away - must be Keller, but which one? What I liked most about the wine was this fresh, juicy, green “bitterness”, that somehow balanced the riper citrus fruits. Something must be said about the acidity - I think this is what makes Klaus-Peter’s wines stand out - this lovely RIPE acidity. Still very fresh, vivid and ultra-sharp but the ripeness makes this so focused and creates a sensation of weightlessness. 92 points. I guessed Keller’s Riesling RR but no, it was the 2009 Keller Riesling von der Fels. As it turned out, it wasn’t the first time this evening I would be lost out in the forest, guessing completely wrong. What a good start though!
Then the first flight was poured. The information we had was that it’s Riesling from Keller, that all were from the same vineyard, and that the vintages were 2006-2007-2008 but not necessarily in that particular order. The identity of the wines were revealed after the entire flight was tasted and discussed around the table but I will include the wine’s name after each tasting note.
The first wine starts up with some roundness, a touch of creaminess. Oh, and there’s that spiciness with blood orange/red peach, mixed with green apples and grapefruit. What an intriguing mixture! Given the creamy vanilla/meringue texture on the palate and the pronounced spices, this is an easy guess - it MUST be Kirchspiel GG. And you know what, I’m going to climb out on a limb here and say it’s the 2006 because although it’s feather light and has a buoyancy that could come from a younger vintage, the richness and somewhat round texture on the palate makes Kirchspiel the prime suspect. 93 points. Yeah, sure… Good call, Miran. It was the 2008 Keller Hubacker Riesling Grosses Gewächs. I think we all looked as puzzled around the table but let me wait with the discussion until I have presented the other wines in this flight. How could a cool vintage like 2008 display such creaminess already? Our host had an explanation, but I’ll come back to that.
Wine number two burst out of the glass with considerable more geist and energy. There’s that orange peel again, or call it even blood orange, and here we go again with those spices. (Haha, it’s so lovely knowing your vineyard and KNOWING it’s the Westhofener Kirchspiel, I thought to myself. Pleased. Very pleased.) Surely this just reinforces my first guess - Kirchspiel, what else? However, this, to me, is a more delicious wine. The spices mentioned above are less pronounced here and instead of more Asian spices, these are more subtle, as if coming from the mineral dust formed after pounding rocks and stones from the vineyard against each other. In fact, the minerality creates this vibrating wave of energy that keeps beaming out from the wine’s inner, mineralic core, like a lighthouse in complete darkness. And get this - so utterly powerful, really like a fist on the palate, with richness of fruit and yet…this incredible lightness. Almost as if it has no weight. What an absolutely lovely Kirchspiel! 95 points. Yeah…well. It’s the 2007 Keller Hubacker Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Hummm.
So here we go…the third wine! Now this is The Right Stuff. Even more energy bursting out from the glass compared to the previous wines, with crystalline minerality as a laser-sharp core, surrounded by softer layers and layers of yellow and green apple, beautifully brushed with thin layers of orange peel and red peach. Intriguing when you have these kind of opposite characters in a wine - both creamy yet fresh as a daisy, both soft and warm with these yellow and red colours and yet…razor-sharp and frozen mint-green colours. Aromas and flavours aside - what makes this wine a beauty is the sheer energy exploding on your palate. Like a pinball bouncing around in your mouth, rinsing every crevasse. There’s an old commercial that best illustrates the feeling. Have a look at: this. It’s like a prolonged vibrato of energy on the long, persistent finish. 97 points. Staring at my friends around the table, I start unzipping unnoticed beneath the table, ready to just make a sudden leap, push away the table and start swinging while shouting Geeeeeeronimo! However, my guess? While the previous two wines were clearly Kirchspiel (in my mind!) this one just didn’t make any sense. There’s only one of Keller’s vineyards that provides this type of nervous pinball-bouncing energy and that’s the Abtserde, but our host swears he has not mixed the vineyards. So what was it? 2006 Keller Hubacker Riesling Grosses Gewächs… WTF!?? 2006??
Well, you live and you learn… Any explanations? I can give you…none. Except that our host said that the only difference was that he had opened all the wines the day before but this wine in particular had been decanted twice, while the others hadn’t been aired at all. The reason being that he felt that a young Hubacker can sometimes be too tight and rigid, displaying too much herbaceous characters, in his opinion. And this one initially did, he said. Well, that still doesn’t explain how a 2006 could perform at this stratospheric quality level, displaying the best freshness and the most intense energy of them all. If anything, one would assume that the vintages would be the opposite, with the 2006 being the first wine which offered a rounder, creamier texture. Then it struck me that such a simplification simply can’t be done. It reminds me of a tasting where I was presented - blind - by a whole bunch of dry German Rieslings from the Pfalz, Nahe, Rheinhessen and Rheingau, all from 2006. In general I thought the wines’ performances were quite weak. Some were heavy, others flabby and while there were some examples of good wines, most of them lacked the energy other vintages provided. In other words, the 2006 vintage was a real tough cookie for dry German wines in these regions. Except…for ONE wine, that suddenly turned up in the middle of the tasting and was nothing like the others. This was vibrating of energy, with crystalline minerality and a clear-cut core of stones, surrounded by bubbly freshness. It turned out to be…yes, you’ve guessed it. The 2006 Keller Hubacker Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Back then I saw it as a statistical outlier. On that occasion I simply thought that it must have had a spectacularly fortunate display on this particular day but now - for obvious reason - I’m beginning to look at this wine and this vintage with different eyes.
Enough talking! Let’s get on with the second flight!
Three new wines were poured and the first one, well, what can you say? It comes running straight out from the glass, offering delicious vanilla/meringue coating the abundant Asian spices and supported by vivid acidity and waves of energy. I guess it must be Kirchspiel (because of the spices) but vintage? “Well, it just cannot be the 2006”, I scribble down in my notes, thinking that vintage should display even more roundness and warmth. Another sip and lots of initial impressions are repeated - clearly some fatness in the texture, like a light coating of dried, oily tropical fruit on top of the yellow/green apples and typical grapefruit character. Imagine nut oils and a silky texture and you get closer to the truth. But don’t you dare think of anything cloying! This is delicate and finely balanced from the very first sip. 93 points. So it turns out to be the 2008 Keller Kirchspiel Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Quite surprising because I thought the cooler 2008 vintage would offer so much richness and silkiness but you live and learn…
The second wine in the flight is, straight out of the blocks, a fabulous wines in my book. Now that I know what it is, I can compare fond memories when I opened this for New Year’s Eve and I can only conclude that it delivered everything you could hope for in a wine. Just looking at the colour when pouring makes you thirsty. Yellow, yellow, GOLDEN yellow, like melted gold. I don’t give any “points” for colour but there’s no denial that a wine looking this good creates a positive sensation in one’s soul. Especially when it’s followed up by characteristics the wine LOOKS to have, given the fresh summer colour. There’s the flower bouquet, there’s the ripe, succulent yellow fruit, there’s the invigorating spice character, there’s the feeling of…summer. Above all, what really makes this a winner, is that - as you stay with it - nuances changes. You’ve got your orange-peel all of a sudden, the elegant spices keeps lingering throughout the palate, like a soft, silky coating, fruits like yellow plum and melon stops by and stays for a moment and in the middle, there it is: the brilliant minerality, making this wine both rich, creamy and yet oh so featherlike, a soft whiff and the wine could disappear just like that. That’s how elegant and transparent it is, the richness aside. And the tremendous length… So much energy pumped into a liquid of fermented grape juice. Simply outstanding and a tremendous JOY to drink! I couldn’t help it but unconsciously my hand drifted and I suddenly discovered I was almost about to…THIS! (viewer discretion is advised…). A resounding 96 points! And the wine? 2007 Keller Kirchspiel Riesling Grosses Gewächs. I wish I could have more bottles of the this but the one I opened half a year ago was my one and only. Better to rejoice and embrace fond memories than crying about not having more bottles… I think 2007 is a brilliant vintage for Weingut Keller.
The third wine showed more roundness. For the first time I actually got it right when guessing vineyard and vintage (but before anyone turns to me for advice, I should point out that this a statistical outlier). As the sister wines above, this one kept dancing all the way down your throat with a playful interplay between ripe acidity and minerality but here you felt a more pronounced roundness in the texture of the wine and considerably more spiciness. Towards the finish the fruit receded and gave way to impressions of wet stones and pure limestone rock. A solid 92 points for the 2006 Keller Kirchspiel Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Maybe I’m a bit too harsh here because it’s a simply beautiful wine but in such company it’s easy to be over-run by other wines that perform at an even higher level and dwarfs even outstanding wines like this. In any way you look at it, what a line-up so far!
Time for the third flight and just to make my presence known, I firmly claim that the three wines MUST be from the Abtserde vineyard! Something that’s also reinforced by my impressions of the wines, so I’m really on a roll here. One of the world’s foremost expert on Klaus-Peter’s wines. Listen and learn, folks… Because this is a master of knowledge talking to you and now, please allow me to educate you about Abtserde.
The first wine hardly hit my tongue before the vineyard gave away its identity. Such a VIB…RRR…ATO (!) of oscillating energy! Like a BEAM of light penetrating dark space. Chalky, dusty and salty it coats the palate with that unmistaken combination of brute force while at the same time delicately light. This MUST of course be the Abtserde vineyard, displaying its entire plumage to impress the taster. The chalky salt crust from the initial expression is mixed with more yellow fruit notes as the receptors on your tongue register an ever-increasing bombardment of crushed rocks, citrus juice, some pink grapefruit and those lovely white peach flavours. Literally dancing on your tongue on its way down to join the rest of the wine that’s already been swallowed to quickly because of the sheer deliciousness of this wine. 94 points. I wonder which vintage of the Abtserde this is and in the Glory of my Wisdom, the bottle was later revealed as the 2008 Keller Morstein Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Yeah, drinking wine blind gives you plenty of opportunity of…humility. How could it possibly be MORSTEIN!?? When the oscillating nerve of energy is so typical Abtserde?
The second wine…let me give you a challenge here. I have NO idea how you express your unequivocal giggly JOY to experience a wine of uttermost quality but let’s face it - WHO in their right mind HONESTLY claim they can taste a wine like this without doing…THIS!?? Common, admit it! I KNOW I’m not the only one. This wine bursts out of the glass like a thoroughbred out of the starting gate. Sprrrrritz! Almost sizzling of energy! Champagne bubbles! A pin ball bouncing back and forth, this beauty comes firing on all cylinders with absolutely filigree transparency, lightness and brute power. The flavours, at this point in time you don’t even think of any identifiable fruit character - it’s just about nerve and energy. Only then…you start the parade of characteristics and the first and foremost…pure limestone rock. I mean, really chalky. Like sucking on it while lying close to the soil with your head. Yes, right there in the middle of the vineyard, I tend to do that sometimes. To the dismay of the winemaker who think I should get a life. Next impression - imagine Zalto crystal glasses (although I had Riedel Riesling for this tasting) when you snap it with your finger and it vibrates like a tuning-fork. THAT’S the impression you get from this wine. Like a hand-blown ultra-thin crystal glassware vibrating from the sheer energy in the wine itself. So typical Abtserde - you simply can’t go wrong here. The vineyard is so nakedly exposed in the aromas and flavours. And the weight of the wine? There’s no weight at all. Not even a light feather. You could even question if the wine is there at all? Yet, you feel the stone-stone-stone (crushed stone! rain on stone pebbles! stooone!) character and then some lovely pink grapefruit and white peach, just slightly sprinkled on the wet limestone rock creating a dusty sensation of flinty mineralic powder. There so much tension here that realise no extra words will do the feeling of oscillating energetic, ice-cold juice. So zesty, so damn refreshing and simply…breathtaking. 98 points. What a wonderful Abtserde, I tell myself, proud to have identified the vineyard. Except for the fact that the wine turned out to be the 2007 Keller Morstein Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Hum. Let’s speak quietly about this. Very quietly.
The third wine in the third flight seems initially almost the same as the previous. Same vibrato of oscillating tension and sparkles of ripe, ticklish acidity and minerality on the palate but as the wine sits on your tongue you notice it’s rounder in texture but the softer roundness is from the fruit only because the harder components are laser-sharp and focus. Like a razor blade cutting you - with love - until you bleed. Before I mention anything else - what an impossibly long and persistent finish. Goes on and on, rinsing your palate like mouth-wash. I wrote down that it’s irritating having to wait and wait for the flavours to disappear on the finish and allow you to continue with the next wine. I love the mixture of mint, the freshest red peach you’ve ever tasted and that brute power of the cleansing. sparkling finish. 96 points. So which Abtserde could this be?, I wonder. And the wine is - of course - the 2006 Keller Morstein Riesling Grosses Gewächs. I know what you’re thinking now - 2006? No way, José. Exactly my thought but as I sit there staring at the bottle there’s nothing else to do but surrender.
The fourth flight is about to commence. By now we know it must be the Abtserde so no more guessing on the vineyard, just vintage. And to make a long story very short, or at least to give you a short summary, all three wines came out firing on all cylinders. It’s seldom I taste a serious of white wines with this staggering quality packed with sheer pleasure. Immensely impressive and all I can say - don’t take my word for it. Try seeking up any of these wines yourself and make your own judgement. It’s of course subjective but I find these wines to be some of the best white wines in the world. The first out of the starting block is not even there. What do I mean? Well, is there wine in the glass or not? You SEE it but you don’t feel it. At least not the combination of mass and gravity - no sensor would be able to pick up any weight here. Goes for all the three wines in this flight. The impression continues with stone, stone, more stone, rocks, pebbles, and not just that but imagine rock that has been squeezed into a liquid - that’s the sensation you get. Lip-smacking salinity and that unmistaken nervousness from the tension in the wine. And the colour…white! White flowers, white peach, white grapefruit (if there ever was one) white truffles, everything white. It’s so utterly precise you feel it’s cutting you until you bleed as you drink this wine. 95 points. This gorgeous wine is the 2008 Keller Abtserde Riesling Grosses Gewächs.
The second wine, even better in my book but now we’re splitting hairs, is totally, completely transparent. Like looking through a window without even noticing it’s there, you know, one of those rare occasions when you accidently bump into a glass wall because you didn’t even notice it because it was so clean and perfectly polished and thus transparent. That’s the best description I can provide to describe the f e e l i n g I experienced when tasting this wine. It’s not even about flavours anymore or perhaps not even texture. Just energy and weightless elegance. But mind you, filigree AND brute power. Now THAT’S a combination that I find quite intriguing… I would be perfectly happy to end the description here but if you force me to describe the flavours notes I would say that it has a flinty sensation, like chalk/slate powder, ripe, delicate succulent grapefruit with a touch of ripe green “bitterness” in the background. Nothing that makes it worse; on the contrary, it adds to the wine and makes it even more elastic and energetic. So much salinity here and utter such clarity. I keep coming back to this wine again and again and I know we’re supposed to be spitting but… 96 points. The identity is revealed and it’s the 2007 Keller Abtserde Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Looking back at my notes I note that the 2007 vintage seems to be on fire today.
The third wine…well remember, when tasting it, I still don’t know the vintage. All wines were shown at the end, after we had voted on the wine and also discussed them (and enjoyed them!). My notes says complex, deep, again that oscillating vibrato of almost sizzling nervous energy, pure and delicate elegance, stone and more stone and again notes of not just grapefruit but more pronounced peaches. Red peaches, as if the wine would be rounder and more mature and sure enough, at this stage I’m prepared to stand my grounds and declare it as an obvious 2006 vintage but just as I’m about to shout out my guesses I’m overwhelmed by yet another wave of pitch-perfect burst of delicate, vibrating energy on the palate. It really IS like you’ve stuck your tongue into a dish washer that picks your mouth totally clean. I’ve used the word vibrato. I’ll use it once again just to underline how incredible full of life this wine is! Like a moving target, dancing seductively along your tongue towards your throat. Absolutely irresistible. 96 points and of course it “can’t” be from the somewhat difficult vintage of 2006, or can it? It’s the 2006 Keller Abtserde Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Amen.
Can you even imagine the sensory explosions on your palate after these fireworks? I’m so happy I took plenty of time to really savour these wines. Our host, however, felt that these four flights of incredible pleasure wasn’t enough so he opened five more bottles. All of them served blind. One turned out to be corked (2009 Abtserde GG) but he swiftly replaced it with another (unknown) bottle. Here are impressions from that extra fifth flight:
2009 Keller Hubacker Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Oh Mama…this came roaring out from the glass cold as ice, with aristocratic nobility, offering total transparently, creaminess, STONE, lots of herbs, minty notes, a lovely vibrato of zappy energy right through the entire drinking experience. Even as you smell the wine you perceive the inner energy seemingly vibrating from the glass and for each sip, you feel the nerve going through the wine like a backbone, never losing its focused grip on your palate. Then I noticed some blurry notes about me being too tired to bring it out and swinging it around - I guess it must have been some expression of satisfaction while lacking the energy for a full rotor swing. I love the combination of green lime mixed with broader brush strokes of more yellow fruit and the cool. almost ice-cold, erect tension in the wine. Absolute clarity on the finish. And absolutely delicious in my book. 95 points.
2009 Keller Kirchspiel Riesling Grosses Gewächs. I don’t even know where he gets these bottles because I have none but who am I to complain! I probably repeat myself by claiming this is so utterly fresh and elegant, with beautiful lift and transparency. What I love about the wine is the same component I feel some of the latest vintages of Kirchspiel have been lacking - those layers upon layers of aromatic Asian spices. Previous vintages seem to ME more spicier and I like that better in Kirchspiel than vintages that are “too” precise and filigree. I’m sure Klaus-Peter would not agree but hey, these are MY tasting notes… I love so many things with this wine. While never losing its grip and freshness it offers up such complexity of warmer fruit flavours, like yellow plum, orange-peel and something best described as succulent yellow/red peach, mixed with those Asian spices I’m rambling about. But wait for it; there’s more. I also very much like the silky, complex creaminess that gives the wine extra weight. The “Suck, så bra” notation on my piece of paper is in Swedish and would probably correspond to something similar to: Sigh…so damn delicious. 96 points. A true winner, of which I have zero bottles. Sigh…
2005 Keller Kirchspiel Riesling Grosses Gewächs. Noticably creamier, broather, warmer, with a silky coating of dried yellow fruits, vanilla/meringue, lots of spices. Not as weightless as later vintages but still so beautifully transparent. A class act. 93 points.
2012 Keller Riesling G-Max. Being too tired by now to unzip and having - late at night - no energy to even lift the damn thing let alone swinging it around to show the host my appreciation of the wine and for allowing me to participate in such a unique event, I simply have to accept the fact that I will need to use simple words to convey my impressions from this wine. No teeth left. Yes, you heard me. No teeth left - that’s my best summary. This wine is simply astonishingly BRUTAL in its energy. Utterly CRISP, it literally hurts in your bones as you bite into the stony core of the wine and you try to hold onto the wine with your teeth it’s shaking you around like a dog trying to shake of its fleas. Sure, if you want me to talk about fruit you find some light pink grapefruit in there but it’s really about non-fruit characteristics in this awesome wine. Like liquid minerals squeezed out from solid rock by the Great Hulk, you don’t even look for any fruit characters as you’re overwhelmed by the crushed stoned characters. The finish really doesn’t want to disappear and makes it almost comic as you sit there waiting for the sensation of zappy menthol mouth wash was slowly fading away on your tongue. Must be a finish that lasts for minutes but I’m getting annoyed with the endless waiting for the flavours to disappear so I can continue with the tasting. 97 points. I only wish I knew where this wine came from, to allow me to understand how the soil profile, the underlying rocks, the exposure and the age of the vines come together to give birth to such a mesmerising wine…but the winemaker refuses to disclose the exact location, which makes me kind of sad. Because I would really like to understand the wine. Instead, I’ll have to stick to my own wild guesses (which I keep to myself). Apparently a double magnum at the Bad Kreuznach Auction went for a price equal to some 1,100-1,200 Euros per bottle. This of course firmly keeps the bottle a solid distance away from away from my financial possibilities but the more expensive the merrier in this case because I also know what happens to the money earned from it. Let’s leave it at that.
2009 Keller Morstein Riesling Grosses Gewächs. As hard as it may be to believe this but this one display even more BRUTE Force than the G-Max. I didn’t think that could even be physically possible. Incredible oscillating energy in this one, with big chunks of rocks colliding against chunks of rock, trembling the earth and pieces of smaller stones fall towards the ground. Lovely salivating salinity and chalkiness makes for the feather lightness in the wine but you soon forget it as the B R U T A L force is again totally overpowering the long laser-like finish. First time my mouth actually hurts after drinking a white wine. I don’t know how to come up with words that explain the sheer tension and force in this mineralic wine. My only wish is that more people get to taste it so that we can compare impressions. Oh, and don’t you worry that I will finish all remaining bottles on the market because I don’t have a single bottle of this extraordinary beauty. 98 points.
So that concludes our modest little Keller Riesling GG tasting… Say what? Us leaving without some cheese and wines with some residual sugar? Our host wouldn’t hear of it so he produced two more bottles, served, like the others, blind. The first one feels almost difficult to taste after all these dry wines but nevertheless offers delicious minerals, salinity and smoke together with ripe grape-fruit and succulent red apples and red peach. While sweet the rigid nobility comes across as very focused and precise. 91 points. Stunningly delicious, especially with the cheese platter. It turns out to be the 2004 Keller Dalsheimer Hubacker Riesling Spätlese. Fun and educational! The second wine jumps out of the glass with more energy. If feels less mineralic than the previous wine, with more whispering texture but at the same time with more vivid energy. It’s like a moving wavelength compared to the more rigid Hubacker so more tension here and flashes of yellow fresh citrus, green lime and a lovely basket of spices coating your palate on the finish as the salty, chalk-like minerality mixes with the succulent yellow fruits. I could finish a magnum of this, even at this late hour… 93 points. The bottle is revealed and it’s the 2005 Keller Westhofener Kirchspiel Riesling Spätlese.
That’s all, folks. A modest and perfect conclusion of a Saturday evening and a prime target for the notorious PLEASURE POLICE had they known what was going on in the middle of Stockholm. Okay-okay, so our host opened some additional Rieslings but not from Keller and none that outshone the top of the line that has been described above (although I must confess that 2011 Zilliken Rausch Riesling GG is a killer…) so I’ll leave that for another post.
And the conclusion? DAMN this thing called blind tasting! From now on I promise myself that I will a l w a y s drink German Riesling while looking at the label so that I can continue persuade myself that I actually know anything about this topic. Ahhhh! When looking at the labels I have a 98% success rate in identifying wines.
Some additional memories from the evening.
Sure enough, our host DID cook up some delicious food. Here a saffron soup with monk fish and tiger prawns.
And yes, there were some sweeties as well (and a dry non-GG to kick the night off), that went very well with the assorted cheese.
And then there was the extra fifth flight after already feeling it’s been a helluwa tasting so far.
Yeah, we SURE worked hard this evening…
Before leaving the host with the dishes and cleaning up, we wanted to thank him for his generosity but as it turned out, he didn’t hear much of our speech since he was already comfortably asleep in his armchair.
Enough is enough…
Thanks for listening.
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Had the 09 G-Max recently……mind-blowing! ![[shock.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0b1dcf699ec319f43254f92e3f145786dcd93904.gif "shock"){kind=small}