Wine Review: Keller pulls a Riesling from the Kabinett

The estate was founded in 1789 with 18 hectares of vines in the region, 15 of which are classified as Grand Cru.

These medium-sweet, off-dry, or whatever you want to call them, German Rieslings are a wonderful thing. On my last visit to Germany, a winemaker explained, and even though he was smiling, I’m pretty sure that he fully supports the notion, that these Kabinett style wines, with their alcohol levels of around eight to nine per cent, are the perfect breakfast wine. I like Germans.

Sourced from the younger plots of the prized ‘First Growth’ Abtserde and Kirschspiel vineyards (with high limestone content in the soils), this is a wine of head-spinning fruit purity and focus. Peach and limey fruits with hints of white flowers, crushed rock, almond paste, scattered herbs, paw paw and bath talc.

The acidity in these wines always tempers the sweetness and this is no exception. A pitch-perfect tension; on the knife’s edge, so to speak, and crackling with energy from the sapid, crystalline acidity.

I like to drink these wines with roast pork but breakfast is just fine too. A medium-sweet Riesling masterclass.

KELLER 2016 Riesling Kabinett ‘Limestone’

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