2016 Grüner Silvaner trocken

As a grower who constantly emphasizes what he considers the critical positive role of long hang-time and especially of cold temperatures in enhancing the aromatics and overall sense of clarity and animation in Riesling, Keller was, unsurprisingly, pleased with the way 2016 turned out, with warmth and sun arriving in the nick of time to catch up ripening, followed by a clear but chilly October and early November. “A good stock of deeply rooted old vines with lots of experience behind them was a huge advantage in 2016,” wrote Keller in the vintage report he annually prepares for his clientele, “because even in a crazy growing season like this one, they don’t let themselves get rattled.” But age of vines is no advantage in the battle against peronospora, and the fact that Keller kept crop losses to a minimum by vintage standards was due to an experienced, indefatigable crew spraying on foot. It was an excellent illustration, he pointed out, of why he has resisted expanding his total acreage and combined the acquisition of vineyards in Nierstein with some shedding of vineyards in the Wonnegau. The disruption of flowering paid dividends of another sort that Keller likes to emphasize – namely, a predominance of loose clusters with lots of millerandage (tiny “shot berries”).

Notwithstanding Keller and his father having given their estate’s 2015 collection the highest conceivable endorsement (as cited in the introduction to my coverage of those wines), my own impression is that the 2016s here not only have the edge in charm but might also have the edge in longevity and ultimate profundity. I sense a bit of irony here. Klaus Peter Keller – who annually tastes through a range of top Côte d’Or cellars and has amassed a substantial collection of red Burgundy – eloquently endorsed the 2006s there vis-à-vis the riper, more obviously structured 2005s, and did so for reasons I perceive as analogous to those that lead me to prefer Keller’s winsome, finesseful yet forceful 2016s to his (without question formidable as well as more numerous) offerings from vintage 2015. Keller is the first to admit that high levels of dry extract, modest must weights and a high ratio of tartaric acidity – attributes often deemed conducive to harmonious longevity – were all features of his vintage 2016 musts. This year’s Grosse Gewächse, despite being picked in the last days of October and the first days of November, weigh in at 12.3-12.6% alcohol. And then there are those virtues that cannot be captured by any analysis, notably aromatic expressivity and “a sense of energy that,” in Keller’s own words, “you could get out of 2016 provided you didn’t do anything dumb.”

As usual, I tasted the majority but by no means all of Keller’s latest collection, and along with his latest white wines also assessed his Pinot Noirs of the vintage prior, in this instance 2015. Keller emphasized that it was a challenge to capture the ripeness of that vintage without exceeding 13% alcohol, but it is a challenge to which he successfully rose. Those Pinots, like Keller’s 2016 Grosse Gewächse, had been bottled only a week before I tasted them on July 24, 2017, but it was Keller who chose that date, and he clearly surmised that if any of the aforementioned wines were going to suffer from bottle shock, it would not yet have taken hold! Among those 2016s that I am aware of having missed an opportunity to taste were Keller’s Pinot Gris, a Pinot Blanc-Pinot Gris blend, and a blended TBA. Incidentally, I was finally permitted this year to taste his (off-dry) liter-bottling of Riesling - but only on the condition that I not write about it! I realized after reviewing my notes that I owe both Tim Fröhlich and Klaus Peter Keller an apology for having described the former’s 2016s as “unquestionably the ‘collection of the vintage.’ “ Each of them in fact showed me a set of 2016s so unforgettably exciting that, although I hope and believe that I kept a critical perspective while tasting them, it was hard not to get carried away when recalling and writing about the experience. (For a detailed account of recent developments at this estate, including Keller’s evolving approach in the vineyards and cellar as well as to bottling and marketing, consult the introduction to my accounts of his 2014 and 2015 Rieslings.)