2021 Weingut Keller, Riesling “Von der Fels” Rheinhessen, Germany.
Keller’s Von der Fels, again delivers a thrilling steely excellence with its classic core of racy lime, green apple, bitter white peach and muskmelon fruits leading the way on the lean light bodied palate that also displays a salty character, stony notes, a bit of lees and a bit of earthiness. Again, I note, this wine hack austerity about it, and is more about freshness and clarity rather than showy in style, though impressive and Chablis like, with cuisine, especially sea foods, like oysters or cracked crab. With air you always get, as prior releases have shown, get more complexity, both aromatically and with depth, adding things such as white flowers, verbena, tea spice and wet shale, plus a bit of an earthy loamy element. The Von der Fels name means “from the rocks” and the winery says this dry Riesling is a blend of young vines from the Grosses Gewächs’ vineyards that Keller has with a mix of limestone, slate and volcanic bedrock underpinning. Klaus Peter and Julia Keller, are superstars in the region, who along with a few others have brought fame to the Rheinhessen, an area that sometimes gets wrongly maligned, they also as noted before, do a set of GGs that have a cult following and are some of the most sought after wines in the world. Sadly the word has got out about this wine and the price has risen, but it still remains a good score if you can find it.
Winemaker Klaus Peter Keller, as mentioned in my prior reviews, is a huge Burgundy fan, having worked with Hubert and Roman Lignier as well as Eric Rousseau in the Cote d’Or, brings that experience to his wines here in the Rheinhessen, and he has a star studded collection of Rieslings, which are all coveted by enthusiasts with savvy Riesling fans grabbing these value priced Estate versions. Klaus Peter Keller and Philippe Wittmann, again as noted before, have inspired an entire generation of young winemakers leading to a renaissance in the Rheinhessen, a region that includes historic vineyards, including Grand Cru sites, like Kirchspiel, Hubacker, Morstein and Abtserde, as well as the workman like vineyard of Hipping, where these superstars have made some of Germany’s most sought after wines, with Keller’s G-Max bottling being one of the world’s most expensive white wines. Klaus Peter and Julia Keller have made Keller an iconic label, focusing on dry wines and now have a cult like following for their GGs, but don’t miss the basic estate efforts, like this Riesling Trocken Von der Fels, which is a fabulous and savvy buy and one I always look for, along with their Limestone terroir/soil Riesling and their lovely Sylvaner, that is a unique and wonderful expression of varietal and place. This basic Keller’s Rheinhessen bottlings also age pretty well, as the 2014 version of this wine proved last year and it is always a good idea to have a few extra around, ten years is not too long to hold them, if you have patience of course.
($49 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive