2020 Riesling Von Der Fels

A flower shop amalgam of flowers and foliage greets the nose, along with fresh pear, lime, and chalk intimations. The penetratingly high-toned 2018 rendition had conjured for me “Scheurebe meets Chablis.” This 2020 is perhaps subtler, and its nuances are more diverse. The polished yet firm palate introduces mouthwatering salinity. Even at 12.5% alcohol – half a degree more than in the astonishingly light 2018 – there is a welcome sense of bounce and buoyancy to the long, herb-infused and chalk-suffused finish. Dominated as usual by grapes from the Kirchspiel, this year’s “Von der Fels” benefited from the inclusion of some Abtserde in the final cuvée. As usual, too, the quality of many a top-flight Grosses Gewächs is offered at a price much lower than that of a Grosses Gewächs. (I mean, of course, that of even a non-Keller Grosses Gewächs.) As always with wines from this estate, just getting one’s hands on a bottle can be challenging, but as of late 2022, I was still able to verify retail sources. (Keller was having trouble finding a bottle of the corresponding 2019 for me to taste, and when he managed to, it was corked. In 2020,there was, as usual, a basic generic dry Riesling from Keller’s vineyards, but I also did not have any opportunity to taste it.)