2011 G-MAX Riesling Q.b.A. trocken

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: Keller's 2011 Riesling G-Max is every bit as pithily concentrated as and scarcely less buoyant or energetic than the corresponding Abtserde, with piquant toasted nuts, legume sprouts, crushed stone, peat, iodine, fruit pit and citrus rinds that truly stain the palate. For all of its near-implosive density there is still lift along with torrential primary juiciness here (something I suspect it needs to keep bitterness at bay). I would expect excitement in following it - for the few who are able - over the next dozen or more years (and a bottle that had been open for a day was not less riveting than one freshly-opened). A recent opportunity to review the dozen vintages of Grosse Gewachse for which Klaus Peter Keller has been solely responsible at his family's estate brings home how the virtues of earlier bottlings have undergone clarification and refinement as well as intensification in more recent years, such that any extrapolation from the former to predict how the later will perform in bottle risks failing to do those wines justice. But, by the same token, there are too few wines enough like Keller's most recent G-Max and Abtserde bottlings to do better than speculate on their long-term evolution, let alone to rely on any existing, analogous track record.

Mosel Fine Wines: The 2011er G-Max delivers a quite aromatic and expressive nose blending fine minty and floral elements with riper notes of grapefruit, peach, coco and dried pineapple, all wrapped into some tobacco. The wine is still compact, structured and intense on the palate and leaves a powerful and spicy feel in the minute-long finish. This highly complex dry Riesling is still too young to fully shine, but its sheer complexity and magnificent intensity are really compelling. This will need a couple more years to start to shine. 2021-2041

Vinous: Expansive aromas of musky peach, lemon oil and passion fruit. The dense fruit is packed on a frame that charms and then refreshes the palate. The finish is thought-provokingly complex and long.