March 28, 2024 - Happy Easter 🐇🐣🐰
This bottle was smack on and so clearly perfect like the one we had about two years ago.
If you would ask me for 3 words of the purest description of this elixir:
Orange, Mandarin and Minerality!
It is always amazing how salty, crisp and clear these KPK GG show after 10-15 years. The wine is fresh but on apex. I think the prime is now probably for 10 years.
I have no doubt that there is more life after that but wonder if it will slowly decline.
💯
March 17, 2024 - 开瓶即饮，边喝边醒酒。有着浓郁沉稳的香气，大量的果味在嗅觉中迸发，成熟而有力，有重量感而向上散发，橘子果酱、蜂蜜柚子茶、蜜饯柚子皮和葡萄柚、黄桃、水蜜桃、果脯、番石榴、柠檬茶、柠檬奶昔、黄柠檬皮等风味构成了兼具新鲜和陈年而来多面向且有秩序的果味，内里还穿插着绿茶、迷迭香和月桂叶之类的香料味，些许茉莉花精油蒸腾的蒸汽萦绕周遭，同石灰和粉笔质的矿物感汇合，在中后段增添些许烟熏感，收尾处有奶糖带来的厚度，以及干燥木质气味。随着醒酒，香气中类似奶油、奶糖的风味和新鲜果味会表现更明显。
口感饱满，有着不错的宽阔感，集中度较高，酸度高但连续性稍弱，干浸出物触感明显，给口腔带来张力感，随着醒酒，酒的立体感会趋好。果味仍然维持新鲜的状态，成熟而活跃的桃杏调、苹果同橘子相互交融，表现细腻，也展现出一定的果皮同轻微果脯味，内里有着甘草、迷迭香、百里香和新鲜茴香的风味，白胡椒碎带来平铺的辛辣感，散布在石灰矿物感中，后段力道稍弱，收尾较长。93/100
December 29, 2023 - Nose of exceptional maturity for a German Riesling with warm apple, exotic fruits and terpene aromas.
The palate, on the other hand, takes the complete opposite of the maturity noted on the nose with a mineral heart, on limestone, wet stone, clay and chalk. It’s elegant and the duality between the richness of the nose and the stony depth of the mouth is magnificent. The juice is tense with a superb acidic frame, while the richness of the nose, notably the exotic fruits, returns like a boomerang on the finish which is explosive, long, suave and salivating at the same time.
Great German Riesling.
May 22, 2023 - Pausing for the Cause Fundraiser and Dinner (Galit - Chicago IL): Almost identical to the bottle from a few days earlier, this is rich and hedonistic, just not as complex or layered vs what I might hope for.
May 18, 2023 - Some Bordeaux (Chicago, IL): A fantastic showing for Keller, showing the ripeness of the vintage very well. Ripe and large-scaled, with lots of fruit-based sweetness showing on the palate. A dense mineral core, with an almost chalky quality on the finish. Not the most elegant version of this wine, but there's plenty impressive about the weight here. This reminds me of the 2006, but clean and fresh.
May 18, 2023 - Top Mid-Aged Bordeaux ("Chateau La Grange" - La Grange IL): Fleshy and ripe apple with plenty of intensity, good weight, and very impressive length. I truly enjoy this wine, but others enjoyed it more, I just don't find it as finessed as I'd prefer for a wine given this amount of reverence.
December 15, 2022 - More intense than the kirschpiel but still struggling with itself a bit. Remains somewhat compact with air and a bit blah. Suspect it just needs time.
December 4, 2022 - blind vs Brunnenhäuschen 2009 and A von Keller
Much better than Kirchspiel 2009. The Abtserde is leaner and with the better acidity structure. Keller is fresher than Wittmann. In great shape. No hurry to drink. 96
December 7, 2021 - Light petrol aromatics. Feeling of tension despite residual sugar which feels higher than wines of today.
October 24, 2021 - I have had a number of the Keller GGs over the years, including the Hubacker and Kirschspiel. But the Abts Erde seems to follow a different track. The first one was the 2008, sampled way too early, a rich and character-full wine but not necessarily a standout. The first real hint (to me) that I was dealing with a different beast came in 2015 when we drank another bottle of the 2008. Tending to orange and more orchard fruit than the (apparently) lesser siblings, the Abts Erde seems to be undergoing electrification, for want of a better expression, with shape-shifting and latitude-crossing flavors bringing in orchard fruits and hints of more tropical climes. Great richness (like its too early brother), but now showing an almost gossamer transient quality. One of my top 10 wines of 2015. The other night it was the 2009 Keller Abts Erde Grosses Gewachs, which perhaps took things one step further. This is an even richer wine than the 2008, but still displaying the pulsating, shifting character on the palate that brings in ripe orchard fruit with more tropical blood orange, all underlain by a chalky mineral underpinning that seems to provide the mechanism by which all of these flavors and inner mouth perfumes expand on the palate.