Riesling Trocken Grosses Gewachs Westhofen Kirchspiel Keller 2018 (1.5L)

92-94+ Points, John Gilman, View from the Cellar: "I was frankly just a touch underwhelmed by the 2018 Kirchspiel this year (within the context of how great this wine usually is from year to year!) and put this down to just how brilliant the Pettenthal is in 2018 and the fact that the Kirchspiel had to follow it. But, then I received an email from Klaus-Peter commenting that he was not happy with how the wine had showed at our tasting either, and had decided to de-classify one cask of the Kirchspiel that he felt was just a tad too "fat" for the wine down into the von der Fels (which will make that wine even better) and I would expect that my score for this wine will ultimately prove to be a bit conservative, with the offending cask now taken out of the equation! The wine, as we saw it on March 22nd, was certainly very good, offering up a very limestone-defined bouquet of pink grapefruit, fresh pineapple, white flowers, that gorgeous base of chalky minerality, wild yeasts and lemongrass. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and a bit more of a powerful personality than is customary in most years, with a fine core, racy acids, excellent cut and grip and a long, still quite refined finish. I have to imagine that my score will be one to two points too low for the wine, now that Klaus-Peter has "fine-tuned" it with the removal of that cask! The first score in the range is how the wine showed at our tasting and the latter score where I expect it will land after the subtraction of that one offending cask. (Drink between 2031-2080)" 4/19 Issue #80