Tvrtko,
yes – my behavior is quite the same. If a producer rise his prices into the stratosphere I look elsewhere. Some unknown producers make fine wines to reasonable prices. You have to find them. But when they are discovered by the critics and the internet boards it can be quick over again. So it seems that looking for good QPR is a life long task 
Let’s be honest though, Germany isn’t close to being in massive demand beyond a dozen wines.
Exactly. And considering that it has been lamented for years that German Riesling will not be affordable in the (then) very near future, and most producers and wines are still affordable, I would wonder if the affordability goes away any time soon. For some reason, Spätburgunder has gotten extremely expensive at quite a few producers. I don’t understand those prices qualitywise. But the price hike happened anyway.
Genau 
. Keeps us busy. It is kind of fun, though, isn’t it? 
Very strong list. Sad how many producers are still underperforming, especially in the Rheingau.
True for the time being, fortunately. I do wonder whether we might be seeing more wines rise to that kind of prominence over the following years, given this whole GG trend.
I had always assumed that the ambitious pricing was due to very strong domestic demand. However, lots of good value among the entry-level wines, I find. Many of the expensive ones can be hideously overoaked.
Indeed. My point is the G-Max, as far as I know, hasn’t been around for much longer than that either.
Since 2001 FWIW
It is very hard to find, but it is even harder to find a better Riesling ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Strong list, but very incomplete:
Missing: Morstein, Absterde, Halenberg, Felseneck etc
FIFY…
Claus,
this is a very personal point of view. It is yours. I do not think that the extra dollar for G-Max is justified. The best wine of Keller is his Pettenthal IMO. But this is a complete wrong definition. I should say the wine I like most from his portfolio is the Pettenthal because something as “the best German Riesling” does´t exist.
BTW: Keller is not the best Riesling producer in Germany as one can believe when reading the internet boards. There are so many on par or superior. All depends on personal taste, style, micro climate, vintage etc.
I don’t know the answer to the OP because they’re so darn hard to spell. 
PS - I agree with the WS and the NH.
The original question reminded me of a thread I started on that other BB years ago about the “wine canon.” In order to say that you are really “into” wine, what are the benchmark wines from each region that you must have tasted.
Jürgen and Russell
off course an IMO would have been appropriate.
This could be one reason:
View from the Cellar / John Gilman: The 2012 Keller Frauenberg Spätburgunder is even more polished and refined. These French pinot clones are now fourteen years of age in this vintage, and are starting to edge closer to their profile at maturity. Like Burgundian vignerons, Klaus-Peter is convinced that twenty will be a very good age for these vines and that they will not really come into their prime until twenty-five years of age, but one can already sense the superior depth and sappiness in this wine as the vines reach fourteen. The outstanding bouquet is a mix of black cherries, plums, cocoa, beautifully complex soil tones, woodsmoke, a touch of fresh herbs and a nice framing of cedary wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and nascently complex, with a sappy core of fruit, ripe acids, beautiful focus and balance and a long, tangy finish that closes with a nice backbone of fine-grained tannins. Stellar juice! 95 points "
Claus, I do understand the main drift of your post is not really to comment on Steven’s observations but, rather, to underline how great you, Gilman, Tino Seiwert and a host of others think Keller really is . But, seriously, ambitious pricing for a lot of German SB is a phenomenon that, I think, dates back to long before Keller’s 2012 or Gilman’s review . Anyway, jokes aside, I do think it’s a question worth asking and I’d love to hear what people think the reasons really are. I am very much under the impression that exactly the opposite of what you are playfully suggesting here is true: the very ambitious pricing policy is something that (at least at first) occurred in the absence of any kind of widespread international recognition.
Howard-
Even though those Rheingau vineyards are now underachieving, what point in time and by whom do you think those vineyards produced “iconic” wines? Unless you don’t think they ever produced iconic/great wines in their history.
Nate,
If you go back several decades (4 or more) there were great wines coming from some of the Rheingau elite. 1976 marks the end of that glory from what I have tasted. There are some isolated successes after that, but no consistent greatness IMO.