2022 Riesling Niersteiner Pettenthal Grosses Gewächs

Julia and Klaus-Peter Keller are undoubted rockstars of the German wine scene. With unstinting and constantly evolving focus on detail, visionary confidence in their sites and uncommon awareness of the world’s finest wines, they have turned their estate into one of Germany’s best wine addresses – and they also make Germany’s most coveted dry Riesling. While Riesling is what made their name, tasting Pinot Noir, Sylvaner (here unusually spelled with a y), Muskateller or Scheurebe makes you realize that they’re aiming for perfection in everything they do. Klaus Peter Keller’s parents, Hedwig and Klaus, already set the quality sights. They were ahead of their time in reducing yields to make better wine as early as the 1970s, proving that this formerly marginal area of Rheinhessen could produce wines with concentration and power. By now, of course, the tide has turned, and mastery today is expressed in concentration and finesse. Julia Keller (née Fauth) trained in Geisenheim and with Müller-Catoir in the Pfalz, which explains the couple’s enduring love for aromatic varieties. Klaus Peter Keller trained in Geisenheim, Burgundy and South Africa and joined in at home around the turn of the millennium. The couple then took over entirely in 2007. Keller emphasizes that he never aimed to grow his estate too much – and that whenever they added a site, they let go of something else. They also always had their eyes on old vines, swapping newer vineyards for older ones. Until recently, they had 20 hectares in Rheinhessen, both in the Wonnegau and the Red Slope, as well as a tiny parcel of vines in the Mosel in Piesport. Son, Felix Keller, joined the estate in 2021 after training with Reichsrat von Buhl in the Pfalz, Emrich-Schönleber in the Nahe and Bérèche et Fils in Champagne and Geisenheim. They have grown to 22 hectares by adding Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards in the cooler Zellertal suited for Felix Keller’s Sekt project – he made his first Sekt in 2018. The release of the first bottles is imminent. For Klaus Peter Keller, this is “just another mode of making wine,” a diversification and an additional possibility with a different harvest window, where, when the year suits it, brilliant Sekt can be made. The wines chart the evolution of what German Riesling's brilliance means. The Pinot Noirs have become much more fine-boned over the past decade and are pictures of elegance. Keller’s Sylvaners are, as if it were needed, proof that this underrated variety is Riesling’s quieter alter ego of site expression. I contend that Pinot Noir is the red alter ego. The aromatic varieties are more playful but no less serious expressions of heightened expression. The 2021 Pinot Noirs, the smallest harvest ever at the estate with tiny yields, and the 2022 whites show the agility with which these vines are farmed. The reds have concentration despite the challenging year. The 2022s have unbelievable freshness and verve. Of course, much more detailed insight into the estate is in David Schildknecht’s excellent and exhaustive article on the Kellers.