The Golden Generation (revisited) 3-Pack
(includes one bottle of each wine below)
2020 Giegerich Chardonnay "R"
2020 Keller "Alte Reben" Réserve
2021 Müller-Ruprecht Scheurebe Kabinett

We had both talked a lot about the profound renaissance going on in German viticulture - he had coined the phrase "the golden generation" in reference to these young growers. The idea was for Keller to pick a few of his favorite younger, less well-known growers and to give them the spotlight. The idea, born of generosity, was simply to support these young growers and to give the American public a greater sense of what was really happening, real-time, on the ground in Germany.

There have been only two follow-ups.

This offer represents the fourth offering of its kind.

To be clear, we are doing the curating of the specific wines here, though the growers are all ones that KP has featured before - growers that we've become close with, whose work we now passionately follow.

In this three-pack, the Giegerich brothers from Franconia, who we first met through their 2018 Grand Cru Silvaner "Schalk," deliver another astounding wine, the 2020 Chardonnay "R." This is a Chardonnay from their oldest vines, texture finding its equal in structure. This is one of the most exciting new German Chardonnays we tasted last year; a small parcel on offer today.

And as with the last offer, KP and Felix Keller have graciously given us a small stash of a very special Keller bottling, the 2020 "Alte Reben" Réserve - a wine so rare that, as we wrote last year, even Wine-Searcher doesn't know it exists. I'm not sure if any other bottles of this wine will be brought into the U.S., so here's your shot. This is an old-vine ("alte Reben") blend of Chardonnay (60%) and Weissburgunder (40%). It is one of the first releases of KP's son Felix, who is for the moment leading the estate's explorations into the Burgundian varieties in their native Rheinhessen. Eventually he will of course take over the estate.

In this three-pack, Philipp and Sabine Wöhrwag of Müller-Ruprecht in the Pfalz, whose chiseled Rieslings from the Saumagen were one of the top offerings last year, present a Scheurebe Kabinett that simply made my jaw drop. Yes, part of the improbable kinetic energy here is a result of the vintage. Yet that isn't the only quality: What truly sets this wine apart is the stunning, pristine purity of the midpalate. This wine is so cut and finely shaped that it feels essential, so honest, so simple and so perfect. To be perfectly clear, if I've ever had a better Scheurebe, it could only have come from one address, and that's from the Wöhrwag's good friends, the Kellers.

Which brings us to the one term not necessarily related to wine from the offer's subject line above: friendship.

It seems to me that the friendships and this almost tangible sense of comradery in Germany at the moment must be an important part of this magic. I've sat at the table with so many growers and there is this incredible energy and enthusiasm for what is happening all around the country. Young growers in the Pfalz speaking so highly, almost in awe, of the wines of Jonas Dostert in the Obermosel. I was on the phone this week with Julien Renard who is making wines in the Mosel and he was singing the praises of Stefan Vetter in Franken. Growers in Franken (the spiritual homeland of Silvaner?) talking so excitedly about the Silvaners of Carsten Saalwaechter in the Rheinhessen. The circle of enthusiasm is never-ending; it is contagious.

This is an eccentric reference for sure, but traveling through Germany right now maybe feels something like what it was like to be at Black Mountain College in the 1940s and 50s, with the improbable assortment of incredible talent including Josef Albers, Walter Gropius, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Franz Klein and Willem and Elaine de Kooning.

So much talent, together, sharing - everyone's energy and excitement making everyone else only more excited. There are so many growers in Germany I meet with and I know, I know at the deepest parts of my being, these will be growers of consequence. In five, ten or twenty years, their names will be known; their wines will be a part of the canon. I'm just happy to be a small part of the story. I'm content to call many of them friends.

This is why, above, there is a photograph of Philipp Giegerich and Felix Keller in the cellar, together. The spirit of this offer, the soul of this offer, is encapsulated in the photo.

So this is how we begin the new year, with energy and excitement. And some ****ing incredible wine!

Let's go.