2007 Westhofener Morstein Scheurebe Beerenauslese

Smelling of pink grapefruit and blackcurrant and mint candies, Keller’s 2007 Westhofener Morstein Scheurebe Beerenauslese surprises – given the tendency of so many of the nobly sweet wines at this address – with a luscious grapefruit juiciness on a palate of considerable verve. Creamy and subtly oily, with an intense finish akin to sucking on sage, mint, and blackcurrant lozenges and on pink grapefruit zest, this nonetheless evinces a sense of refreshment. It would make a stunning – if no doubt very expensive – accompaniment for certain deserts, as well as making old bones in your cellar, a quarter century or more from now. Keller agrees that “fresh-fruited-ness” is an important aim, even in a concentrated nobly sweet wine, and here he has managed to retain an efficacious measure of it. Klaus-Peter Keller has acquired in time for the 2009 vintage a piece of Nierstein’s famous red Rhine shore slopes, but while he is obviously excited by the prospects he is anxious to remind me that “in the 15th Century, the bishops in Worms were not drinking wine from the Red Slope, but rather an aptes erden” – an allusion to the Abtserde vineyard, from which he began rendering dedicated Riesling in 2006 – “and they were certainly very savvy.” Keller considers 2007 “the most successful vintage in Germany for dry wine in a long while,” and when pressed admits he means an unprecedented vintage, since in his opinion he and his colleagues have been on a steep learning curve and were less well-positioned to take full advantage of past vintages that might have been theoretically ideally suited to Riesling trocken. Today, he says, he aims to “achieve slimness and elegance as well as ripeness.” Keller’s relentless pursuit of quality is encompassing longer cask maturation and later release of his best dry wines as well as experimentation in both red and sweet wine methodology. (Note that for all of the Keller 2007s I have tasted, there are also Auslesen from Hubacker and Morstein; a T.B.A. from Hubacker; and several other wines that I did not have chance to experience.) Judging by Keller’s three Pinots – tasted from barrel, and then from bottle – for him, at least, this is a vintage of exceptional potential in red as well. Imported by Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644, Dee Vine Wines, San Francisco, CA tel. (877) 389-9463, and Frances Rose Imports Inc., Huntley, IL; tel. (815) 382 9533