Weingut Keller G-Max Riesling, Rheinhessen, Germany

凯勒酒庄G-马克斯雷司令白葡萄酒

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The most recent release of this iconic wine is the 2022 Riesling G-Max, which I gave a score of 95+ last year in the summer when I tasted it for the first time in the context of Keller's 2022 Rieslings, when the wine showed up as a concentrated and intense yet still reductive purist. Six months later, not much has changed. The nose is dense, enormously aromatic and fruity and intermingles with yeasty and salty notes. Dense, round and juicy on the palate, with generous, accessible fruit but also a fine, mineral acid structure, this is again a rather slender, elegant and perhaps less dramatic G-Max compared to the 2021 or 2019. It already dries pretty well this young but will reveal its true character only over the next 10 or more years. The wine will be available in May 2024 (for those who are lucky enough to get a bottle or two). Whether it really has the substance and class of the last 10 vintages remains to be seen. Tasted blind as wine number 22 of the G-Max vertical at Steinheuer's Restaurant Zur Alten Post in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, January 2024.

The 2021 Riesling G-Max is another highlight of the history of this mysterious wine. Cool, citrusy, taut and fresh on the nose, with rocky notes and a concentrated but elegant Riesling and yellow stone fruit aroma, this is a juicy, zesty and taut dry Riesling form a coolish and rainier vegetation period. The wine reveals a concentrated core and well-integrated mineral acidity. The 2021 is slender, very fine and enormously animating G-Max that I tasted blind as wine number 21 of the G-Max vertical at Steinheuer's Restaurant Zur Alten Post, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, in January 2024.

Served blind as wine number 18 and right after the 2018 in the G-Max vertical tasting in Germany, Keller's 2020 Riesling G-Max is very clear, fresh, puristic, firm and concentrated on the nose, with aromas of salted lemons and phenolic notes. Very elegant and defined on the palate, this is a full-bodied, dense, salty but also elegant and even delicate and pure Riesling that develops a great, very long finish. This is a classical G-Max like the 2012 that should gain in expression and finesse over the coming years. Tasted at Steinheuer's Restaurant Zur Alten Post, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, in January 2024.

In this context (20+ years of G-Max) and tasted blind as wine number 20, the still embryonic 2019 Riesling G-Max shows clear, bright, fine and elegant Riesling fruit in a classic style with saline notes in the background. Dense, saline and spicy yet also juicy on the palate but without any hint of mass or power, the 2019 already sings, plays and laughs, yet it also reveals plenty of tension. It is a true classic with unusual finesse for the G-Max and possibly the beginning of a new style with more purity, finesse and precision? Tasted at Steinheuer's Restaurant Zur Alten Post, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, in January 2024.

From a vintage with a very warm and extremely dry summer, Keller's 2018 Riesling G-Max is clear, very dense and slightly phenolic on the nose that quotes citrus notes and ripe, concentrated stone fruit aromas. Juicy and very dense or even massive in its firm structure but also provided with fine mineral acidity, the 2018 G-Max develops an enormously salty, long-lasting finish but remains an embryonic dry Riesling with the structure of a Clos-Ste-Hune from Trimbach and probably also its life expectancy. Tasted blind as wine number 17 of the Keller vertical, right after the 2016 vintage at Steinheuer's Restaurant Zur Alten Post, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, in January 2024.