This is the second vintage of this famous 2022 Weingut Keller Sylvaner Westhofen – Sylvaner of the future!
Weingut Keller Story
The Keller family has been making wine in Flörsheim, Rhinehessen wine region since 1789. Klaus-Peter is the 9th generation of the Keller Family to grow vines and make wine in the area.
Before joining the family winery business, Klaus-Peter learned viticulture in other regions. In the early 1990s, he did a few internships in Burgundy, one of which was at Domaine Rousseau.
Klaus-Peter Keller and his wife, Julia, took over the day-to-day direction of Weingut Keller in 2001. In a short while, the estate was recognized as the source of some of the finest dry Rieslings in the world and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) that rivals top-class Burgundy. Today, their son, Felix, is working alongside them. On the way up the ladder, the estate also has more “everyday” wines of varying levels of sweetness and age-ability.
Keller’s wines convey tremendous concentration, purity, and minerality sensation, setting the benchmark for other German producers.
Sylvaner
While Keller has long been associated with excellent Rieslings and Pinot Noirs, the family also has a deep connection to neoclassical varieties such as Scheurebe or Rieslaner and Silvaner, this Rhine-Hessian classic, which the Kellers call “Sylvaner” in the traditional spelling.
For a long time, the Silvaner was the most widely cultivated grape variety in Germany and the workhorse of Rhine-Hessian viticulture. However, the most uncomplicated weekday wines were usually produced from it, which is why it was rarely planted in better locations. To make quality befitting its status, Silvaner also needed suitable vineyard sites.
Keller Sylvaner Westhofen 2022
In the Bottle
One such Sylvaner site is the “Dautensatz” plot below the renowned Westhofener Abtserde. Grapes for 2022 Westhofen Sylvaner came from this tiny 0.2-hectare lot that is more or less a new baby of the Keller family, with only a second vintage bottled.
“Dautensatz” has a unique soil structure – red and white limestone soil, sometimes with a lot of iron, sometimes without it. “Like Bonnes-Mares terres rouges and terres blanches” is how Klaus Peter Keller describes this plot.
The vines were planted here in the early 1980s, and the youngest is 38 years old. This small lot availability is scarce, and we were lucky to find a bottle at the local specialty wine shop.
“We make sure that the Sylvaner is not read too ripe,” says Felix Keller, explaining his approach: “I want 12 to 12.5% vol., no more for the Silvaner; Because it lives from the acid.” After fermentation, the wine is aged in 700-liter barrels and stainless steel tanks to preserve its character.
In quality, 2022 Keller’s Sylvaner compares to wines of the best Village or Premier Cru sites of Bourgogne or Loire. In other words, one of the finest Silvaners in the world awaits us in the glass.
In the Glass
Coming from a cool-climate region, Westhofen Sylvaner has delicate yet sophisticated aromas. The first thing we smelled took us back to our childhood years in Moldova. When our parents took us to the amusement park on weekends, we always drank pear-flavored soda from paper cups. Keller’s Sylvaner smelled just like it, and we traveled back in time.
Then, our journey continued with wine opening up as it warmed up a bit and interacted with the air. We sensed ripe, juicy yellow pears, apricots, wet slate, and the powdery scent of confectioner’s sugar.
With all those aromas, it’s still refreshingly dry wine with flavors of lemon-orange marmalade, apricot, quince, spiciness, and a touch of salty minerality. The wine appears mouth-filling, silky, sensual on the palate, and blessed with great length.
Undoubtedly, Keller’s 2022 Westhofen Sylvaner is among the rarest and one of the best Silvaners Rhinehessen region and, possibly, the whole of Germany has to offer. Would you agree?
Compare it to other Sylvaners
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