My first Keller gmax

WINE TALK
21

Interesting, when you do verticals are the costs shared/or at least averaged out with the others? (Something like that would make more sense to me.) Iā€™ve had a fair smattering of 1st growths, none older than from 70ā€™s, but for that sort of coin, it would be white or red burg that I would go toā€¦just find a level of complexity there that I experience nowhere else, and in particular, not even in great Bordeaux, but it may well be me who is missing something.

22

I am +2 on william And Fred. If I compiled a top 10 all time wines Iā€™ve consumed, white wine would be on the list more than red.

23

Iā€™m really enjoying this thread. Iā€™ve never had a G-Max, and while the dominant share of my spend and of my wine pinnacle moments has each been with reds, not whites, Iā€™ve found that great Rieslings tend to ā€˜wowā€™ me more than any other red or white, perhaps because of my relative inexperience with, say, an aged Auslese showing that petrol to good effect. I also find that whites are taking an increasing share of my most aspirational spends. Experiencing a Coche or Dā€™Auvenay in fine form (for example) makes it hard not to take that plunge again. I tend to rationalize those stretch purchases by taking note of how the rest of my buys of white wines blend down the average so dramatically. YMMV.

Jonathan

24

Depends among other things on the food
My cellar is 50/50 approx. i drink 50% more white. It pairs better with most dishes IMO
Also it is palate-challenging to drink a red in the kitchen making food, then a white with the first dish, then a red again with the main dish
And red wine with cheese?? Nogo

25

For me the greatest white wines are just as great as the greatest reds. If not more so.

Not that Iā€™d pay $2K for any bottle of wine unless I win the lotteryā€¦

26

I am sqrt(-1) on this

27

Hmmmā€¦someone told me 06 gmax sucked? [scratch.gif]

[wink.gif]

28

2006 sucks in Germany for Trocken Riesling
However Keller did best of all in this discipline
The 2006 G Max is great, but not 2000$ great. Actually the Morstein is better, IMO

29

+3.14

or drc monty.


itā€™s not in the same league as the 09. neener

30

Imagine thatā€¦

Never had the G-Max. Iā€™ve had a few Montrachet and a few Coche and some outstanding Donnhoff and Prum and Chave whites. They rival or equal some of the best reds Iā€™ve had, but best of the best for my palate are reds. They just push buttons that whites donā€™t. I probably open 10 reds for every white, excluding Champagne and stickies.

31

ugh 09 was so good last week. Haunting wine

32

I remember buying the 2007ā€™s from Crush. < $1000 for a full case that included 1 G-Max, plus Mortein, Kirchspiel, etc. The price on G-Max alone now is downright crazy - I totally agree with the other thread that it seems like price speculation and manipulation is going on behind the scenes. Alas, mine is long goneā€¦ to bad I donā€™t remember it as one of the best wines Iā€™ve ever had!

33

Last month I traded

Are trades even still legal?

I know the IRS has been chomping at the bit to close that loophole since forever.

Thinking about it some more, and even it strikes me that trades could be felonies in some states.

Itā€™s getting to the point where you canā€™t even leave your house without committing one crime or another.

34

I am happy you liked it. First all of G-Max is not really $2000. Because of the rarity of it yes there are few stupid examples of retailers trying to sell it for that and I am sure even a person or two that might have paid that for a certain vintage they wanted. Lets assume for this argument that it is a $1000 bottle of wine. What I like about it as a die hard dry Riesling geek it is nice to know that you can buy the rarest and possibly best example of the genre for that price. And of course the wines that are not G-Max but still in this league can be had for $100-200. In Burgundy this would be $4-5k for DRC Montrachet or Coche CC.

35

This was the first G-Max I had with any age (Iā€™d had a tiny pour at a dinner 10 years ago, when I thought it was expensive but nothing like current pricing). I thought incredible.
Intellectually I donā€™t have any reason to spend less on whites than reds- some of my greatest wines have been whites- but when I sort by price I paid on CT, first 20 or so are red
(and most ā€œwhitesā€ that on first page are Champagne or dessert).

36

Many less experienced and sophisticated palates say this neener

Iā€™m most interested in Markā€™s comment that he thought the Gmax was like a Clos St Hune. I have only experienced a couple of each over the years, but I would have said these two wines are at the polar extremes of Riesling (if we take away Zind Humbrecht, and only look at dry Riesling). Especially in 2006, a botrytis vintage in Germany.

37

I didnā€™t notice any overt botrytis but one person at table immediately said CSH VT when the rest of us were guessing CSH. This had tropical fruit but a lot of minerality, and did remind me of ripe vintage CSH.

38

+exp(i*Pi/2)

39

Since I canā€™t find/afford any GGā€™sā€¦bought some 16 Von Der Fels Trocken. Howā€™s it?

40

I havenā€™t had g-max in a couple years. 2009 vintage, at a 2017 NY Paulee event I crashed. Pretty remarkable. (Canā€™t afford it myself.)

I recall the excitement about the 2001 and then the 2002, which IIRC, are what really launched Keller onto the ā€œsceneā€ in the US. The 2001 was very special. My hazy recollection is that Joe Dougherty was very excited, got some on release, and poured it for folks. A Yowsa wine.

On the broader discussion here Iā€™m with Jay Miller. Not surprisingly. Just as many profound red and white wine experiences. So many of my favorite and most memorable wine experiences have been whites. And not just Chardonnays and Rieslings