'23 Keller Rieslings - Best in the World? - A New Level of Intensity and Structure

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2023 Keller Weisser Burgunder & Chardonnay Trocken
Offer: $69
In English, white pinot and chardonnay: Keller’s take on Burgundy grapes. What the Keller family have created here is mighty. With Felix's (KP and Julia's eldest son) passion for these varieties and the old vines available the work that he has been done over recent years has resulted in a very unique style. It's like a mythical blend of Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru and Corton Charlemagne with just a little dash of slight skin-contact phenolics grown on limestone to add more linearity, texture and electric nervosity. 
 
As KP says, "It's all about elegance and precision, so we use 1 large old oak barrel, a few small older pieces (purchased from Domaine Dageneau and Lalou Bize-Leroy at Domaine d’Auvenay), along with some stainless steel.” This is a fully dry white at just under 13% alc. with a mineral first impression, fruit following but with a real depth on the palate, a textural twist almost bordering on chewy, and a slight spiced apple and "warm dough" nuance, powerful yet restrained. Pear and grapefruit have freshness and the oak is well buried. It has impressive length, concentration and ageability.
 
“White burgundy (the Burgundians were originally a Germanic tribe) was picked the best conditions from September 20th to 25th and we quickly approached the Riesling harvest, which was completed with great grapes in the 2023 vintage on October 2nd. A very intensive harvest season, which shows that the harvest window is not getting bigger in times of climate change, but rather smaller. Only with a fantastic team of employees and friends is it possible to always be on the vines when the grapes are perfectly ripe!” - Keller Vintage Report
 
2023 Keller Riesling Kabinett 'Limestone'
Offer: $79
2023 was not, on the whole, a ‘Kabinett year’ for Keller. KP is in the habit of calling the vintage for either pradikat wines or dry wines around July, and ideal conditions arose in 2023 for excellent dry wines. Consequently this will be one of the rare Kabinetts for the vintage from Keller. 
 
This is from fruit largely drawn from the Kirchspiel Grosse Lage, with contributions from Absterde and Hubacker, the Keller 2023 Limestone Kabinett is light on its feet, refreshing, and terribly drinkable. On first pour aromas of apple, white flower blossoms (mock orange Daphnie and gardenia etc), passionfruit and ripe dripping peach juice. The sweetness is so delicious and, as strange as it sounds, hardly noticeable unless you really think about it. 
2023 Keller Riesling Trocken 'Von der Fels
Offer: $105
The dry counterpart to Limestone Kabinett, which was made in much smaller quantities this year. Today the vines are more than 30 years old – this is no longer the home of the younger vines, which is once was.

“What a joyful and effusive dry riesling this is. Brimming with yellow and citrus fruit plus spring flowers, wonderful succulence and very elegant acidity for a non-GG wine. There’s an excellent structure behind this that drives the wine off into the distance. A cuvee of wines from GG sites: 45% Kirchspiel and 25% Absterde, plus some wine from Hubacker and Morstein. Drink or hold.” 95pts! – James Suckling
 
“Remarkably creamy citrus and ripe green fruits, even a touch of preserved green fig. The initial gentleness becomes more piercing with air. On the palate, bright, driving freshness clothed in sweet citrus (though the wine is dry). This has depth and richness, balanced by extreme freshness all the way through the core of the wine. A baby with great potential and full of joie de vivre. (The 2007 was still showing well in early 2024.)” 17/20 – Julia Harding, jancisrobinson.com 

2023 Keller Riesling 'RR'
Offer:  $164
The Keller Riesling RR usually comes from the heart of the Kirchspiel grossen lagen (grand cru), where the soil is decomposed reddish limestone. This is a flamboyant and exotic wine that Keller ‘lets off the hook’ – usually only a single cask that does not ferment to full dryness. The small amount of residual sweetness lends both opulence and exoticism, matches with a killer line of acidity. KP has joked that in vintages like this the RR stands for Rolls Royce! This is a wine that ages beautifully, and recently I tasted a 2012 today, and it is sailing along straight and true with really impressive opulence and freshness; and great acidity. The 2023 will age for 10 or even 20 years. Randall.

The wine has ripe yellow stone fruit with some tropical qualities bursting from the glass, wreathed in smoky, black tea and warm ‘red-earth’ petrichor. The palate is plush but has plenty of phenolic grip and the ‘pull’ of a dry finish, together with excellent minerality and sizzling acidity. Further yellow and tropical fruits abound including peach and kernel, kumquat, and zesty orange citrus piths. The perfect balance of weight with lip-smacking moreishness. The finish is long and very stony, the iron-ore/reddish rock providing a beautiful petrichor close. 

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4 products