Vinous 99 As with this year’s Hubacker – though to an even more striking degree – this opens with a flourish of floral perfume such as one regularly anticipates from Keller’s Abtserde bottling. (But then, part of the mystique surrounding “G-Max” is its vineyard origin, which might conceivably vary from one vintage to the next.) With that comes pit-tinged white peach and pippy lemon as well as intimations of chalk dust and struck flint. The concentration on a silken palate raises the wine’s aromatic impressions to the next dimension, with floral perfume accompanied by a bittersweet note of flower-chomping, stems and all, while the chalkiness becomes palpable and the fruits almost pulpy. Yet there is a sense of lift to belie so much concentration. Marine salinity stimulates the salivary glands to complete the sensual, next-sip-compelling side of a prodigious finish whose stony undertone and citrus pip piquancy simultaneously pull in a more austere direction, while all the while a kaleidoscopic interplay of floral and ineffable crystalline mineral elements dazzles. Almost surely, this wine’s intrigue – and perhaps even its sheer sensual appeal – will be enhanced by cellaring. But I somehow doubt that anyone who gets to share a bottle at this stage will feel regret at uncorking it “prematurely.”