Keller Riesling Westhofener Morstein Grosses Gewächs 2018

100 points Stuart Pigott (JamesSuckling.com): "The minerality here is astonishing — the citrus fruit is so pure and so powerful that it prickles the inside of your nose like a pickle or heady spice. Crushed bones, wet stones and flint are dialed up nearly to perfection. Talk about vertical? No. Talk about a skyscraper! It has so much energy it nearly explodes, the acidity rising up to infinity and beyond. Staggering freshness and length. If this doesn’t blow you away, nothing will. Drink now or hold for a very, very long time. (3/2/20)"

97 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "With the stricter selection of old vines for the GGs in 2018, the Morstein was made from an average of seventy-two year-old vines this year. This is a breathtakingly beautiful young wine and we are right back up at the Pettenthal level of breed, precision and complexity with the Morstein. The bouquet is young and stunning in its potential, delivering a blend of sweet grapefruit, tart pineapple, wild yeasts, a beautiful foundation of limestone minerality, lemongrass, dried flowers, a lovely swath of smokiness and a topnote of lime peel. On the palate the wine is pure, deep and full-bodied, with racy acids, stunning complexity and grip, laser-like focus and an extremely long, vibrant and stunning finish. Pure magic. 2033-2085. (Mar/Apr 2019)"

95 points David Schildknecht (Vinous): "There is downright severity to the penetration that this delivers on the nose – of crushed citrus seeds, oregano, sea breeze and chalk dust – as well as to the gripping tactile impingement of those elements on the palate. The feel is firm, but even taken together with the aforementioned sense of severity, the wine doesn’t come off as austere, thanks to its mouthwatering salinity and abundant bright juiciness of lime and grapefruit. The vibratory finish is tongue-lashing in intensity, but you don’t have to be some kind of masochist to enjoy drinking this, because it’s refreshing as well as rivetingly fascinating. I’m left with a paradoxical set of impressions: On the one hand of a palate-scouring, on the other hand, of chalk, salt and citrus oil layers having been deposited that it would be hard to scrape from my teeth. What I wrote about this wine’s vintage 2017 predecessor holds true here as well: '[F]or all that [it] approaches hyper-concentration, it nonetheless exhibits an exhilarating sense of animation and lift while compelling the next sip.' To which observation Keller responded, 'That’s exactly how it should be.' (Nov 2020)"

18.5+/20 points Julia Harding, MW (JancisRobinson.com): "Cask sample. Like the Hubacker, the fruit is golden, ripe and spicy – yellow plum, ripe grapefruit and Seville orange. But there is also a strong fumy herbal character of Riesling from a top site spontaneously fermented. Savoury/mineral spice counterbalanced by intense lemon fruit, more citrus than the Hubacker on the palate but equally powerful and concentrated. So intense it feels as if it needs a little water to reveal its full aroma, the way some single malts do, but it just needs time (please don’t add water). Extreme wine of such intensity it is almost painful to taste now, though it could also be to do with a build up of acidity during the tasting. Wait. Drinking Window: 2028-2038. (3/16/19)"