2014 Riesling G-Max Trocken

Served blind as the 14th wine of the vertical and right after the 2013 vintage, Keller's 2014 Riesling G-Max opens with a clean, fine and rather classic nose with ripe, cooked and concentrated fruit aromas with phenolic spice. Slightly untamed and animal on the palate, this is a taut, fresh, persistently salty, straightforward and enormously mineral as well as elegant G-Max with great and complex length. This is more than just a remarkable Riesling for this difficult vintage when, after a warm summer, rainfalls caused a stop-and-go harvest in many German wine regions. Tasted at Steinheuer's Restaurant Zur Alten Post, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, in January 2024.

Tasted blind. 2014 was another year which had plenty of challenges in store for German growers. It was a vintage in which in many vineyards the development of grape sugars rushed hastily ahead of physiological ripeness, but the G-Max seemingly miraculously managed to bridge the gap. Knowing Klaus Peter Keller, there is no such thing as a miracle, only meticulous care of the vines and perfect timing. The 2014 may not be quite as compact as some of its siblings, but it takes its strength from a precise definition of fruit, acidity and minerality. The fruit is fresh and cool with notes of lime and grapefruit, smoky nuances set a refined mineral accent. A taut body and sound yet never sharp acidity provide a firm structure that promises great ageing potential.

This leads with surprisingly but by no means unpleasantly herbal and weedy aromatic intensity allied to peat-like smokiness, chalk dust and penetratingly high-toned suggestions of cassis and sloe berry distillate. “I am not for the faint of heart!” it seems to be warning. “It smells like the soil of the site,” insists Keller. The expansive, subtly silky palate is lush but bright, with the herbal pungency and dark berry piquancy that were signaled in the nose embedded in a diverse matrix of white peach, lime and turnip. The finish here nearly explodes with mouth-shaking energy, conveying wild herbal intensity, chalky impingements and a smoldering, peaty underlying earthiness, without losing focus or neglecting its obligation to refresh as well as enliven.