Keller Riesling 'von der Fels' Rheinhessen 2024

The name Keller has become almost synonymous with the Rheinhessen region, and with top-quality riesling. Klaus-Peter Keller and his wife Julia have taken winegrowing sites that were not highly regarded a generation ago—Kirchspiel, Morstein, Hubacker, Abtserde—and turned them into mythical plots of riesling fanaticism. Since taking over the estate from Keller’s father in 2001, they have dedicated the vineyards to organic farming methods and the winery to low-intervention winemaking. The focus has shifted toward drier styles of riesling, with truly spectacular results from their single-vineyard, grosses gewächs cuvées. “von der Fels” translates as “from the rock”, and this cuvée is drawn from a selection of vines from Keller’s Grosses Lagen vineyards, with their mix of clay, loess, silt, stone, and shell soils. Grapes are hand harvested and left on their skins for up to 40 hours before the whole bunches are gently basket-pressed and the juice fermented on ambient yeast in fuder. The wine rests for a year on the lees and receives a light filtration before bottling. A very dry trocken riesling, this offers serious minerality and focus, all with Keller’s signature elegance and power. Organically grown, low-intervention/natural wine.