I wouldn’t say that there is a price gap between Keller and the rest. I would say that there is a price gap between G-Max (and now perhaps Pettenthal if it is only going to be sold at auction) and other dry german wines. 2017 is a little bit of a tricky vintage to use as an example because there was very little wine and only Hubacker and Kirchspiel were sold outside of the Kellerkiste, but prices in New York for those two were roughly $80-90 per bottle. That is roughly the same as what I’ve seen for the Rebholz GGs and Shafer Frolich’s Felseneck, and significantly less than MarMar. I’m sure that there are others. Absterde is now harder to find than before and I can’t tell if that is because of the vintage or demand. Mortsein and G-Max, and Hipping and Pettenthal, have always been sparse around here.
Well I clearly need to be more attentive if I want any of these GGs at the prices you all are suggesting. Right now there are some 2016 Hubacker GG on the west coast for $189, about the cheapest I’ve seen for any Keller GGs.
It used to be that US citizens would visit Europe for special dental procedures to save money (ie. the cost of flights was far less than the price difference of such services between the US and Europe). New version - fly to Germany to get Keller at better prices, pocket the savings 
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Ultimately not too worrying. As many suggest there are lots of other good producers of dry Rieslings.
Keller told me he still sells a lot of wine at the winery ( there is a small shop ) .
just for the record no GGs in the shop and already thousands of Keller-aficionados waiting in front of the shop to get an entry.
So, don´t even think about it.
This is a philosophical dilemma that we all suffer in the wine world. If wine exists at a price I’d be delighted to pay, but I cannot get it, either because of distribution or availability, then does it really exist (at that price)?
The wine is readily available at the release price. It isn’t that tricky to find it when it comes out. Maybe check wine searcher every now and then. In the previous thread about Keller prices, which was in December, I posted three separate times about stores selling Keller at the price I mentioned. I wasn’t working that hard to find it. I was checking wine searcher. If you really want it, seems like you might call one of those retailers who I posted about in that thread and ask them if maybe they would set aside a bottle for you next year. Yes, it sells. But it hits shelves and there of tons of retailers who sell it outside of an allocation process.
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Awesome, thanks for the tip!
You keep mentioning that it’s readily available. Most of those wines that showed on wine-searcher sold out in minutes/hours, including some you posted about. Next you’ll be telling me that 2013 Bartolo Mascarello was readily available at $150 because it showed up on wine-searcher.
I mean readily unavailable upon release. The wines move but they aren’t that hard to find when they come out. Until September of last year, Moore Bros. had magnums of 2010, 2011 and 2012 hubacker and kirchspiel sitting on the shelves for $150 a pop. That is Moore Bros, the NY importer for Keller. Perhaps the most obvious source of the wines for anyone interested. And they have a physical store front. With magnums sitting there for the last six years. In 56 degree storage. 2017 was a small vintage and the wines went quickly (not sure about a matter of hours, and certainly in the case of manhattan wine company, where the wines were significantly higher but still at a lot less than $179, the wines were there for days).
As far as I can tell, Kirchspiel and Hubacker aren’t allocated. They aren’t going to linger on the shelves at the release price, but if you really want a bottle they just aren’t that difficult to find. No one is going to bring the wine to you if you haven’t been buying. If you just expect it to fall into your lap then I guess I agree that it is going to be tough to find. If you are willing to make an effort, then it is easy to find out who is selling it and ask them for a bottle of an un-allocated wine.
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Ahhh, yet another Keller thread hijacked by the complaints of secondary pricing. Lovely.
Herwig, I had the 2017 auction Pettenthal recently and frankly it was as good of a young Riesling as I have had. What separated it from other young wines was how soft and expressive the nose was. Sounds like yours was tighter? Mine was flowers and fruit. No sulphur or gas on the nose. The palate had those cool notes of Pettenthal site (mint, basil…) but also a delicious streak of chili pepper. I asked KP and he said he used a special, gentle press on this. Need more from this press! Yes… I would pay up in the secondary market to try to recreate this experience.
Had the Kirchspiel 2017, it was tight but I get the point about a lot of dry extract. Very promising. From memory, a SFro Felseneck has a simliar profile BUT both needed a day open in the refrigerator.
Have a bunch of these but not enough that I am really tempted to pull corks. Thanks for the insights, Herwig!
In Beaune in a few weeks we’re going to taste / drink some Raveneau wines (back to 1990) followed by some Keller Abtserde vintages. When we did the same with Coche Corton-Charlemagne and G-Max last year, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that Keller is more consistent (though we didn’t taste so many vintages). For me these wines really are up there with Domaine d’Auvenay in the way the combine consistency and very high quality. But at that level, it begins to get quite personal of course.
William, I am enjoying a 09 Abtserde right now. It became far more expressive with extended air and is highlighted by a palate-coating stone dust. Can’t wait to read about your tasting.
Hi Luke , your tasting note seems right . I agree the Pettenthal is much less tight than the other ones . I could drink it right now .
Regarding the complaints about prices , it all depends on where you buy it . I buy my Pettenthals for much less than $ 100 .
Btw , I had dinner Friday evening at the German 3 star restaurant Christian Bau , near the Luxembourg border . Absolutely amazing , one of the best 3-stars I have ever visited . We had a lot of old German Rieslings ( 1998 , 2001 … ) and they were delicious . They are also low in alcohol which helps when you drink a lot . But after the 4th bottle , I got a little tired . We then had a Meursault Perrieres 2014 from Coche ( yes , on the list for 700 ) and this was another level of concentration .
Not for the ‘17 GG, right? That’s the auction wine that went for about $1000 a bottle. I don’t think he can legallly sell it for less than the auction price, so unless someone is taking a huge loss, not sure how you could get it for that price.
Off-topic, but did the old Rieslings come from the wine list as well? The restaurant is only a 30 minutes drive, but I usually just go to BYOB restaurants in Luxembourg. But in order to try some older rieslings, it might be worth the trip.
Given I sold the Pettenthal GG 2017 auction wine to various people (I represent Keller in The Netherlands) I can confirm that the price indeed was not $100 for the 17… it was auctioned for Euro 760 ex VAT if memory serves me well…
It is always difficult to interpret the auction prices, as it is also an extreme play between bid / ask… if too many people put in a bid without a limit then prices can explode. Look for instance at the TBA of Egon Müller some 4 years ago or so, where there were X bottles available (I think 36 or so) and there were (X+3) offers without any price limit… so the price went up and up and up until Egon made available another three bottles to stop the price going into the stratosphere (it ended at circa Euro 13.000 ex VAT per bottle).
But in the case of Pettenthal, I think the recent results reflect some changes that the Kellers have made to improve quality. In my opinion Pettenthal was always very good, I have always loved the distinct (especially versus the Westhofen wines where the soil is limestone dominated) profile of the Pettenthal, from the red slate Nierstein soils.
Since 2016 the Kellers changed quite a bit with even lower yields (yields are a bit like those of Leroy in her top vineyards), using a basket press (instead of a pneumatical press) over several days, using the upper and lower borders of the Nierstein Hipping and Pettanthal vineyards for making a generic Nierstein Rieslings, and only using the very best part of the Hipping and Pettenthal vineyards for the GG, etc. So the Pettenthal (but also Hipping, but e.g. there it is not 100% basket press yet to my understanding) has definitively seen a noticeable upgrade in taste the few last years. And at the auctions also in price…
Fully agree with that, it was a stellar dinner and well worth the 4 hour drive…