I had the great pleasure to taste the "grand cru" (Erstes Gewächs) dry wines from Weingut Keller (Rheinhessen) in a complete overview. The wines are Kirchspiel, Hubacker, Morstein, and G-MAX. The vintages 2001 to 2005. I just want to share my overall impressions here. It is a great privilege to be able to taste all these side by side. The estate has for some of these wines not a single bottle left, and had to purchase some back, in order to make the tasting possible. That says something about the demand and rarity of some of these wines. There is good reason for this, for I found at least 3 wines to be as good as it gets in dry Riesling (Morstein 04, G-MAX 04 and 05), and several others very close to it. The consistently high quality from the 2002 viontage is striking. 2001 was not a general favorite over the (incomplete) range. The wine making style has changed since then, the vinyard management too, and Klaus Peter Keller has taken over responsibility from his father. 2002 wines seemed fresher, showing more minerality and harmony, tasting more natural and were just more drinkable than 2001. 2001 also showed some controversia goosberry notes, and the acids appeared less juicy than I would like. These were not bad wines, in the German context of "trocken" wines, they are very good, but from 2002 we are in a differnt ball game. Still, 02 was overshadowed by what followed. The 03s are amazing considering the heat of the vintage. The wines retained their freshness and showed remarkable balance and minerality. Maybe not as thrilling as 2004, but very impressive, and the Morsatein 03 was my No. 4 wine overall, and perhaps the wine I drank with most pleasure at this stage. Wow! 2004 proved to be the overall favorite, somewhat to my surpise. I had to agree, for these wines have laser focus, great minerality and depth as well as power. 2005 seemed a bit closed by comparison, not quite showing the same power and precision, but maybe they can catch up. The 2005 G-MAX was for me already at the level of the 2004 G-MAX.
We tasted not by vintage, but by vineyard in fact. Kirchspiel is the wine that has a ceratin lightness, and very appealing drinkability. Sometimes that makes it appear not quite as serious as e.g. a Morstein, but the wines have the depth a minerality of a great Riesling. Kirchspiel 05 was at one stage my favorite of the 05s. Hubacker has more power and firmer grip (a cooler vineyard), and in addition more excotic fruit flavors (esp. the 05). It tastes perhaps the most "German" to me. Morstein is perhaps the richest and deepest wine. One would expect the 03 to be over the top and broad, but it was superb (as was the 04). G-MAX is maybe the most perfectly built, combining depth, richness and racyness, hitting the bulls eye in 04 and 05, while in 03 not quite up to Morstein.
A fantastic line up of wine, and a great promise to the future (with additions to the stable already planned). A big thank you to Klaus Peter Keller for making this tasting possible.
Peter