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From 51-year-old vines on very barren rocks, Keller's 2015 Westhofen Kirchspiel Riesling Trocken GG is clear, intense and precise on the nose. It is very ripe and concentrated, provided with refreshingly chalky lemon and even discreet mocha/nougat flavors. Great purity and vitality on the palate, but it also has lots of power! Its power is very well captured by the concentration of everything fruit, minerals and acidity. The 2015 Kirchspiel is full of terroir and vintage expression, a dense and round, yet tension-filled and vitalizing Riesling. This wine has a very linear and straight-forward character, with an enormous complexity and power, as well as finesse, grip and minerality. Keller's Kirchspiel was picked in two passes one earlier and one later. "It was important to keep the grapes shadowed and to not pick too early," says Keller, who was still full of fear in August, due to the drought and heat. But he is pretty happy with the result, today.
Wine Description
The Story
The Kirchspiel is a brilliant terroir, which routinely produces one of the tightest young wines in the cellar and which Klaus-Peter describes as “always a wine of pure finesse and dancing minerality.” The vines at the top of the slope that find their way into the Grosses Gewächs bottling of Kirchspiel were planted in 1964, on the hard limestone section of the vineyard, laced with quartz veins. The result is a wine that delivers lovely, “cool fruit” tones (despite the Hügelland’s high average temperatures and Klaus-Peter’s penchant for harvesting late), brilliant precision, and a base of kaleidoscopic minerality that is almost crystalline in nature. Stylistically, the Keller Kirchspiel reminds me quite strongly of Maison Trimbach’s great Riesling grand cru, the Cuvée Frédéric Émile bottling (particularly on the nose), with perhaps just a touch more German delicacy about it on the palate. The Kirchspiel routinely weighs in around thirteen percent alcohol, and yet is a wine of refined restraint and tremendous felicity to its underlying minerality.
Wine Information
Dry, distinguished and delicately fruity, Riesling's bouquet offers tremendous finesse, sometimes with mineral or floral notes. In their youth, these wines have scents of apples, citrus fruit and peaches. With age, they develop more honeyed notes of quince and minerals (fossils, flint). Recognized as one of the finest white grape varieties in the world, it produces superb, gastronomic wines.