The most expensive Riesling ever, according to a German auctioneer, has been sold in Germany.
A rare double magnum of G-Max 2009 dry Riesling made by Weingut Keller was sold for €3,998.40 to an anonymous Luxembourg collector late last month.
‘That price is the highest for a young dry Riesling sold at auction I can remember,’ said Hans Jürgen Podzun, head of the Koblenz Chamber of Commerce.
Podzun was auctioneer of the 26 September Bad Kreuznach auction in the German state ofRhineland-Palatinate.
Only six double magnums of G-Max 2009 exist, owner Klaus Peter Keller said. He had put three up for auction, and is holding the other three at his winery.
One Keller enthusiast, Dade Thieriot of Dee Vine Wines in San Francisco, told Decanter.com he was interested in buying until the price climbed too high.
‘When the price went over €3,000, I lost interest. But when it comes to dry German Rieslings, no one makes better ones than Keller,’ he said.
One of the three double magnums went to Tino Seiwert of wine merchant Pinard de Picard, who said, ‘It is one of the best dry white wines in the world. The 2009 can be compared to the Montrachet of Romanée Conti.
‘It unites the dancing lightness of the Riesling grape with enormous depth and a razor sharp mineral precision.’
The G-Max came in first place at a professional blind tasting of 30 top German dry Rieslings from the 2009 vintage, all grosses gewächs (grand cru) wines, held in Berlin the day before the auction.
G-Max – named after Klaus Peter Keller’s great grandfather George and his son Maximillian – is made from old vines on predominantly limestone soils with ideal solar exposure in Dalsheim (Rheinhessen), from low yields of 25-30 hectolitres per hectare. In addition to the 6 double magnums, 30 magnums and 1,600 regular bottles were produced for the 2009 vintage.
Written by Panos Kakaviatos in Berlin
