Galloni über:
Sammlerbox: Keller-Kiste »Von Den Grossen Lagen«
-- Galloni: Hubacker:Quarry dust, bruised apple skin, zesty fresh lemon and flowering rosemary penetrate the nostrils. Stony, alkaline components on the firm palate are rather hard-edged, but there is a compensatory abundance of bright lemon and apple juiciness as well as a mouthwatering suffusion of mineral salts. The finish is strikingly penetrating and persistent, featuring lemon peel, rosemary, salt and stone. This is a Keller Hubacker of unusual animation and transparency. I’ll be very surprised if it does not significantly outlive its 2015 counterpart, not to mention prove consistently more fun to drink. 92/100Hipping:Tangerine, lime, Persian melon and Rainier cherry are fragrantly arrayed in anticipation of a luscious joint performance on this bottling’s silken palate. A smoky, lava salt savor and musky, narcissus-like floral perfume add to its seductive and mouthwatering inner-mouth appeal, while piquant hints of cherry pit and tangerine peel add delightful counterpoint on a buoyant, superbly sustained finish. At 11.5% alcohol and 17 grams of supportive but discreet residual sugar, this beauty – representing an amalgam of two casks – is stylistically very much in the mold of its wonderful vintage 2015 predecessor. 94/100G-Max:Lime, fennel and sea breeze on the nose set the stage for an equally pungent display of zesty citrus, bittersweet herbal concentrate and mouthwatering salinity on an expansive, faintly oily palate. Stony undertow and glowing citrus seed piquancy extend a long, mouthwateringly salt-tinged, intensely vibrant finish of sappy concentration, even if not one boasting the transparency, multiplicity or sheer refreshment of this year’s Abtserde. At the risk of sounding churlish, and while recognizing my great good fortune in being able to taste the annual editions of Keller’s always impressive G-Max, I can’t help suspecting that the long-standing cult status and the mystique of this Riesling from a never-to-be-mentioned site are what cause German wine critics to consistently rate it as the top wine in any given Keller collection. 95/100Abtserde:Fresh lime and white peach, iris, thyme, chalk and marine minerals are all intimated on the nose, then reconvene on a silken, buoyant, generously juicy palate. Even more than usual, the wine displays an intricate – almost lacy – complexity of herbal, floral, fruit and mineral elements, as well as a clarity that surpasses that of its fellow Keller Grosse Gewächse, impressive though they all are. Yet for all of its buoyancy and refinement, the mouthwateringly salt-tinged, near-endless finish is intensely reverberative and blazingly bright, revealing the maximum energy conveyed by any of Keller’s other dry 2016s, and all the while offering consummate refreshment. “You can tell from a wine like this,” noted Keller, “how Abtserde is a site that supports residual sweetness, unlike Morstein.” And you can also tell that it’s magical – irrespective of residual sugar. 97/100Kirchspiel:The nose here is surprisingly subdued, offering intimations of citrus and crushed stone. But the wine delivers a veritable mouthful of chalk along with juicy, oregano-laced lime, grapefruit and white peach. Firm in feel but not austerely hard, it finishes with a vivid sense of energy and a piquant peach kernel glow that never turns into outright bitterness or precludes a striking sense of transparency to stony and alkaline nuances. 93/100Morstein:A powerful, high-toned nose suggests plum distillate, strongly intimating the pit piquancy that emerges on a glossy, glycerol-rich, expansive palate. Buddleia and rosemary flower also waft from the glass and then add inner-mouth allure. There is a remarkable sense of sap and energy to the long, gripping, piquant yet refreshingly limey, juicy finish. Here is another instance where it’s impossible for me to avoid imagining that an extra percentage of alcohol would have driven this highly impressive performance into overly spirituous and outright bitter territory. This year, Keller employed some of his newly acquired, ancient Mosel fuders for fermenting and aging his Morstein, and not surprisingly, he said, “I like the fit.” 94/100
