The Große Gewächs (GG) of the VDP – an association of 200 of Germany’s leading wineries – represents the highest quality wine made in Germany today.

These are the finest dry wines made from the country’s top-ranked vineyards made to stringent regulations.

Harvest yields are capped at 50 hectolitres per hectare, though in practice they are usually much lower, and hand harvesting is mandatory.

These are only the basic requirements, without even considering the experience, commitment and expertise of the winemakers behind these wines.

All of this comes at a price: the average GG costs around €49 per bottle. However, wines from some estates command several hundred euros per bottle and are sold exclusively by subscription to a loyal customer base.

Risk versus reward

The figures on a GG’s price tag can therefore be viewed from two perspectives – as a price or as a value. The latter increases with a winery’s reputation, its image and the loyalty of customers who secure their allocation year after year.

People tend to stick with what they know and avoid risk, and many are willing to pay a premium for that reassurance.

At the same time, those who have the courage to try something new are often rewarded.

Many VDP members produce wines that remain undervalued, particularly in relation to their quality and price. A number of family-run estates have recently passed into the hands of a new generation whose education and international experience are bringing fresh momentum to these wineries – though this still needs to be recognised by consumers and critics alike.

One example is Weingut Kranz in the Pfalz, where son Xaver has been working alongside his father Boris since 2023.

It would be presumptuous to speak of second-tier wineries. If anything, that perception applies more to visibility than to quality. Sebastian Schäfer of Weingut Joh. Bapt. Schäfer in the Nahe, for instance, is naturally reserved and takes a discreet approach to marketing.

Yet in Wiesbaden – where the annual GG release tasting is held – he has once again demonstrated that his dry GG wines rank among the finest, even if they are not among the most expensive.

Here are five GGs that won’t break the bank yet promise a richly rewarding tasting experience.

Five great value Grosses Gewächs to try

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Droughts, heat spikes, hailstorms, wildfires: the catastrophic effects of climate change on the world’s vineyards are evident.

There is some talk of ‘solutions’ and more of mitigation, but the truth is that hundreds of billions of tonnes of fossil carbon is now squatting in our atmosphere that wasn’t there in the pre-phylloxera era. And it’s stuck. Nature’s removal of carbon from the atmosphere is considerably slower than the rate at which we’re adding it.

The atmosphere, remember, is the critical part of terroir. Soils and landforms are typically stable over brief geological periods of a few thousand years. Extreme climate change, by contrast, may render our greatest vineyards unusable in two human lifetimes. All of our wine places, consequently, are changing. Wine’s pleasure map is blurring.

Most (67.3%) of our planet’s land lies in the northern hemisphere – so it will both suffer most and benefit most from climate change. Southern Europe is now climate-anguished and even classic, mid-latitude fine-wine regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont and Tuscany are threatened.

In contrast to much of the southern hemisphere, though, where wine regions are already clustering around the southernmost land extremities (Patagonia excepted), the northern hemisphere has higher-latitude sites aplenty. England’s transition from Quixotic outsider to bright, new, cool-climate star, a transition that the magnificent 2025 vintage will hasten further, is a stark example.

Everywhere, though, is changing. In most cases this is gradual – so gradual we might not notice. Here’s an example of that ‘quiet change’. Twenty years ago, Germany was struggling to make balanced Rieslings in trocken (dry) style. Job now done. Today’s Germany is becoming a ‘Pinot paradise’ – or so the Germans are claiming.

The figures are impressive. According to German Wine Institute figures, Pinot varieties accounted for 17% of Germany’s vineyards at the turn of the millennium; by 2024, it had reached 31%. Plantings of white Pinot family varieties (Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Auxerrois) increased by an astonishing 199% over the same period. Pinot Noir is increasing, too – by 24% between 2000 and 2024; it’s now Germany’s most widely planted Pinot variety (11,437ha in 2024). Most Pinot plantings are in the southernmost regions of Baden and southern Pfalz, but no region is without a Pinot presence.

During a brief stay in Frankfurt in early August, I visited one of the new Pinot specialists – Braunewell in the Selztal in northern Rheinhessen, based in the village of Essenheim. Pinot varieties are well established on the rolling hills and limey marl soils of the village’s main vineyard sites (Teufelspfad, Blume and Klopp). Stefan Braunewell’s grandfather, he says, ‘was a big fan of Pinot Gris and planted it in 1971 and 1974 – they’re the oldest vineyards we have’.

Nowadays, though, Stefan feels that the star is Chardonnay, ‘though no one is waiting for German Chardonnay – or rather they don’t know they are waiting for it’. That’s the challenge for the quiet changes wrought by warming: the market needs time to catch up.

As well as tasting the Braunewell family’s wines (a 2020 Chardonnay from the am Römerberg plateau site was vinous, intense, long, dramatic and pure; while the 2023 Pinot Gris from Teufelspfad was delicate, rounded and tender), I also had the chance to try eye-opening Chardonnays from Friedrich Becker and Jülg in the Pfalz, and opulent Pinot Gris (Grauburgunder) from Salwey’s Grosses Gewächs site of Oberrotweiler Eichberg in Baden’s Kaisterstuhl.

Most impressive of all, since this is a Pinot family member rarely taken seriously elsewhere, was the structured and sinewy Juliusspital Grosses Gewächs Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) from Volkacher Karthäuser in Franken and the leaner, tauter, more fragrant Berghaupten Schützenberg version from Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein in Baden.

Germany, clearly, is no longer quite what you or I thought it was. Don’t miss out.

In my glass this month

The stars of the Pinotfication of Germany are the country’s top red-wine producers – such as Baden’s Julian Huber of Bernhard Huber. His Malterdinger Alte Reben Spätburgunder 2017 (US$129 Wine Watch) was a revelation: aromas of mellow Pinot Noir classicism at mid-maturity; the layered, finely crafted flavours are perfectly pitched between unforced fruit sweetness and a harmonious, fruit-saturated acidity. The oaking is also more skilful than it was during Germany’s debut Pinot Noir years.

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For three days, the soft clinking of glasses, the gurgling of wine, and the clicking of computer keyboards sound like promising whispers through the 129-metre-long columned hall of the Wiesbaden Kurhaus Kolonnade.

The background noise reveals that the preliminary tasting of the latest Grosses Gewächs is taking place.

Every year, the world’s most important wine critics, buyers and sellers, Master Sommeliers, and Masters of Wine come to Wiesbaden, the capital of the state of Hesse for the event organised by the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates – VDP) to taste and evaluate the wines that are among the best in Germany.

Caro’s pick of the best new dry German wines listed below

Grosses Gewächs (Große Gewächse), or GGs for short, are the finest dry wines from the highest-ranked vineyards, intended to reflect their origin in the wine itself.

A total of 481 were served in Wiesbaden – the whites mainly from the 2024 vintage and the reds from 2023. They are being released in September and cost between €30 and around €100, sometimes much more, making them wines for special occasions, enthusiasts, connoisseurs, and collectors, as well as for upscale restaurants.

The tasting in Wiesbaden offers experts a unique overview of the different wine regions, grape varieties, and vintages.

The 2024 whites

The 2024 vintage was not an easy one for winegrowers. A warm March was followed by relentless late frosts in April that froze the first buds. This phenomenon decimated the harvest, especially in the Mosel and Nahe regions.

Winemakers such as Anne and Cornelius Dönnhoff from Oberhausen an der Nahe lost up to 80% of their grapes. In some vineyards, there was simply nothing left.

Friends and colleagues made their vineyards available to them for cultivation. Thus, 2024 was the first vintage in which the Dönnhoffs produced wine in Rheinhessen and the Pfalz (Palatinate) to compensate for part of their losses.

However, what survived in the best sites, such as Dellchen, produced one of the best Rieslings in years.

Overall, 2024 was perceived as a cool year, which is also reflected in the temperature sum between 1 April and 30 September, as represented by the Huglin Index (an index that records the total heat sum of temperatures above 10°C during the growing season).

In 2024, the total was only 1,635 in the Pfalz, compared with 1,877 in the warm year of 2022. In tasting terms, this simply meant that the acidity in some wines was remarkably high.

This made the Riesling GG wines from the even cooler Mosel among the least successful of 2024. Since a Große Gewächs must, by definition, be a dry wine, Mosel winegrowers had to force their wines into a dry corset.

The interplay of acidity and residual sweetness above nine grams is reserved exclusively for Prädikat wines in the VDP. One way to reduce the naturally high acidity levels in the must is to macerate white grapes on the skins, but this has the side effect of leaching out bitter notes.

Sour and bitter – and in amounts that were simply too much in some Mosel Rieslings.

A surprise winner

In contrast, Rheinhessen proved to be strong. The vineyards along the Roter Hang (Red Slope) on the Rhine between Nierstein and Nackenheim – including the Hipping and Pettenthal sites – which tend to suffer in warm years, benefited from the cooler conditions, and the wines appeared slim, elegant, and exciting.

While Klaus Peter Keller’s Rieslings from the Abtserde or Morstein sites are usually at the top of the range, his Riesling from Pettenthal is in top form in 2024. ‘Typical for such a cool year,’ comments Keller.

Outstanding results also came from the Nahe and Pfalz. Stylistically, the Nahe Rieslings have settled on the positive side between the usual Mosel and Rheinhessen styles.

Emrich-Schönleber’s Frühlingsplätzchen is one such classic: graceful and delicate. In the Pfalz, Philipp Kuhn’s wines lead the ratings alongside Christmann, Rebholz, and Dr Wehrheim.

Silvaner in Franken clearly did not cope well with the rainfall and cool temperatures in September. Unlike Riesling, the traditionally dry Silvaner wines cannot conceal anything with residual sweetness. Even the best examples, such as Weltner’s Echter-Berg or Wirsching’s Kammer, seemed somewhat edgy.

The winner of the 2024 vintage, however, was Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder). It’s a variety Alsatian winemakers in particular like to look down on but sometimes, like this time, it can rival Chardonnay with its approachability and sheen.

With 6,300 hectares (Source: The German Wine Institute, DWI) planted, mainly in Baden and the Pfalz, Germany is the world leader in Pinot Blanc.

Hansjörg and his sons Valentin and Hans from the Ökonomierat Rebholz winery in the Pfalz produce Pinot Blancs that are in a class of their own. Salwey in Baden and Dr Wehrheim, also in the Pfalz, can keep up, however.

The 2023 dry reds

Unlike white wines, red GG wines must be aged for two years before they can be released on the market. Most of the reds served in Wiesbaden, therefore, were from the 2023 vintage.

Here, too, there were extreme weather conditions ranging from drought to heavy rainfall, but the late warm summer apparently made up for some of this with the Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) grapes.

After the magnificent 2022 Pinot Noir vintage, expectations were not particularly high at first, but the 2023 wines impressed with their freshness, clear fruit, fine acidity, and Burgundian elegance.

The usual suspects proved themselves once again: Fürst with Centgrafenberg from Franconia, and Huber with Schlossberg and Bienenberg from Baden are at the top of the list.

Our top 30 wines – 15 whites and 15 reds from the 2025 GG release

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Caro Maurer MW, Mark Dearing and Stefan Neumann MS tasted 58 wines, with 2 Exceptional, 6 Outstanding and 30 Highly recommended

Spätburgunder: Panel tasting scores

58 wines tasted

Exceptional 2

Outstanding 6

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 16

Commended 4

Fair 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release, still, dry red wines made from Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) only, from any region in Germany

Scroll down to see the top-scoring wines from our German Spätburgunder panel tasting

Warming vineyards

It may not sound politically correct, but German wine regions are still benefiting from climate change.

Spätburgunder – literally translated as ‘late Burgundy’, otherwise known as Pinot Noir – is one of the main winners in the rising temperatures.

Warm vintages such as 2018, 2019 and 2020 have already brought noticeable ripeness and a marked rise in quality.

The 2022 vintage was another standout, with German Spätburgunder earning recognition among the world’s best.

‘The wines from the 2022 vintage in particular were outstanding today,’ said Stefan Neumann MS after tasting these 58 Spätburgunder wines.

Growth potential

Unlike Riesling, Spätburgunder is still a ‘niche product’ in Britain, according to Mark Dearing. This is despite the fact that Germany cultivates 11,519ha of Pinot Noir, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

With a total cultivation area of some 120,000ha worldwide, the country ranks third, just behind France (about 32,300ha) and the US (about 25,000ha).

The grape variety can now be found in all 13 quality wine-growing regions – and thus thrives on a variety of soils: limestone as well as slate, red sandstone, basalt, loess or Keuper.

‘The wines have expressed their different regional characteristics very strongly,’ said Dearing. Neumann was particularly impressed by examples from the Ahr and Rheinhessen regions.

In contrast to the past, ‘the fine-tuning today is spot-on’, he added. ‘It’s the small differences in the handling of acidity, extraction and oak ageing’ that have led to the excellent results in this tasting. And you don’t need to spend a fortune:

‘The quality is consistent across all price ranges,’ Dearing said. The tasting’s biggest surprise was a 96-point Spätburgunder from Mosel (see recommendations). ‘Mosel shows enormous potential – the cool climate and slate soils create a distinctive style,’ said Dearing.

‘This,’ Neumann added, ‘is where elegant, fresh, vibrant wines are made – the kind you’ll want a second glass of.’ ‘German Spätburgunder should be on the radar of every wine lover who appreciates expressive, terroir-driven Pinot Noir,’ Dearing said in conclusion.

What to eat with Spätburgunder, by Fiona Beckett

Given the quality of Germany’s Spätburgunder wines, it’s worth erring on the extravagant side of possible food pairings. Fillet steak or beef Wellington, for example, rather than ribeye or venison; raw or seared meats such as carpaccios and tartares. (That applies to tuna, too.)

That said, it also works well with the cured, sometimes smoky meats and sausages you find in Germany.

There is also the reliable go-to of duck and other game birds. Partridge would be particularly fine. Thanks to the richness of many Spätburgunders, they can handle a bit of spice, too. Five spice, which you find in Chinese duck dishes, is particularly Pinot-friendly.

At this time of year there are also mushrooms of all kinds – a mushroom risotto is an excellent foil for a good Spätburgunder, ditto a mushroom stroganoff. Older vintages would be ideal for an autumn dinner party.

Spätburgunders are also generally easier to pair with cheese than Burgundy, especially with bloomy, white-rinded cheeses such as brie and the excellent British Baron Bigod.

See all notes and scores from the Spätburgunder panel tasting

The judges

Caro Maurer MW is a German food and wine writer, a WSET- and MW-level educator, and the DWWA Regional Chair for Germany. She contributes to Bonn’s daily newspaper General-Anzeiger and food and wine title Der Feinschmecker

Mark Dearing is a wine buyer for London-based merchant and importer Justerini & Brooks, where his responsibilities include Germany, as well as numerous other major wine nations and regions

Stefan Neumann MS is a Master Sommelier who runs his own wine consultancy, having spent many years working in the world of Michelin-starred restaurants. Born close to Austria’s Wachau region, he is the DWWA Regional Chair for Austria and Switzerland

Spätburgunder panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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German winemakers planted more grape varieties usually associated with Europe’s more southern regions in 2024, replacing local vines with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot as growers adapt their vineyards to a warming climate.

Wine producers in Germany increased the cultivation of Chardonnay grapes typically associated with Burgundy by 138 hectares (ha), the German Wine Institute (DWI) reported on Tuesday, citing data from statistics office Destatis. At the same time, growers reduced the area for early-ripening Müller-Thurgau.

As climate change brings warmer growing seasons, German winemakers are increasingly planting French grapes that in the past wouldn’t reliably ripen in their vineyards, as well as new varieties bred to resist fungal diseases that thrive in warm and humid conditions. Average annual temperatures in Germany have risen around 2°C since the 1970s, according to climate data compiled by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia.

The total area in Germany with Chardonnay vines rose 4.7% last year to 3,050ha (Destatis). That’s nearly double the figure from a decade ago. Sauvignon Blanc has been another popular white wine variety among German winemakers, with the growing area more than doubling in the past decade to 2,054ha in 2024.

Meanwhile, growers have been ripping up plots planted with Müller-Thurgau, once Germany’s most common white wine variety ahead of Riesling. The area of Müller-Thurgau fell 2.1% last year to 10,511ha, less than half the surface planted with the variety in the mid-1990s. That’s as the overall area producing whites was little changed year-on-year at 71,423ha.

Among red wine grapes, Merlot bucked a trend for falling production area, with the growing area increasing 3.2% last year to 96ha Meanwhile, the overall surface producing red wines fell 1.4% to 31,872ha as German winemakers adapt to consumer demand shifting to white wine.

‘The increases in the new robust grape varieties and in the southern varieties in the red wine sector show that German winegrowers are increasingly adapting to the challenges of climate change,’ DWI MD Monika Reule said.

Germany is Europe’s fourth-biggest wine producer behind Italy, France and Spain. German wine production fell 9.8% to 7.75 million hectoliters in 2024, the third-lowest volume in 15 years, according to Destatis. The statistics office blamed spring rains and mildew as well as extreme weather including late frosts and hail storms for the drop in production.

The overall vineyard area in Germany fell 0.4% in 2024 to 103,295ha due to the decline in reds. White wine grapes accounted for 69% of the total surface, a share that’s been creeping up year after year since 2006, when whites accounted for 63% of the wine-grape area.

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Riesling grows prolifically from Alsace and Austria to New York and New Zealand. Nowhere but Germany, however, does Riesling shine with such kaleidoscopic brilliance.

After all, Germany is considered by many to be the birthplace of Riesling. Historical accounts of Riesling’s exact origin vary, but undoubtedly, Germany is the heartland where this majestic grape has flourished for centuries.

The earliest recorded reference of Riesling in Germany was found on cellar logs dated 13 March 1435, a date that’s celebrated as Riesling’s unofficial birthday.

Riesling is the chameleon of the wine world, adopting a unique persona and style in every region it sets its roots. But only in Germany does Riesling unveil the full technicolour spectrum of its abilities.

A mirror to the exacting intricacies of German terroir, German Riesling ranges from bone dry, or trocken, to the barely sweet feinherb and decadently sweet. German Riesling triumphs in both still and sparkling ‘Sekt’ forms.

See German Riesling wine reviews by Decanter experts

German Riesling guide: Five key regions to know

Despite straddling the historic limits of cool-climate viticulture, Riesling has flourished in each of Germany’s 13 wine regions thanks to a complex interplay of sun exposure, topography and soils.

Mosel

The most iconic of all German Rieslings are those of the Mosel, a region where legendary producers like Willi Schaefer, Joh. Jos. Prüm, Zilliken and others are so abundant, that they’re seemingly ubiquitous.

Spine-tingling and often laser-light in expression, the wines of the Mosel are born out of a contrast of extremes. Despite an extremely northerly latitude (in wine region terms), the steep, south-facing slopes of the Mosel enjoy maximum exposure to the sun.

The craggy outcrops of shale covering the region’s most famous vineyards reflect sunlight and hold in heat.

‘The depth, complexity and lightness of wines from the Mosel, especially our Kabinett, is singular to Germany and the world,’ says Andreas Barth, who, with his wife Susanne, operates Weingut Lubentiushof in Niederfell, a winery that dates back to 1711.

Rheingau

The Rheingau’s historic reputation for Riesling of aristocratic pedigree far outsizes its surprisingly small vineyard size.

Vineyards of the Rheingau stretch along the northern banks of the Rhine and Main Rivers, tucked around the many castles and abbeys that dot the region. The south-facing vineyards tumble down gentle slopes towards the rivers and are protected from northerly winds by the Taunus mountains to the north.

Compared to the Mosel or Pfalz, the region enjoys a ripening period that starts earlier and extends late, explains Catharina Mauritz, the eighth-generation owner of Domdechant Werner in the village of Hochheim. The Riesling there is ‘elegant and filigreed’ with ‘acidity that’s not too harsh’, she suggests.

Dry, distinctly supple Riesling with focused minerality is characteristic, but the region is also renowned for complex expressions of botrytised sweet Riesling.

Rheinhessen

Rheinhessen is Germany’s largest wine region – a sunny, fertile expanse that was once an epicentre for the mass production of industrial sweet wines. Today, the region is far better known for the renegade producers of the 1990s who spearheaded a quality revolution there.

Historically, Rheinhessen’s best sites were concentrated in the red-sandstone soils of the Rheinterrasse (‘Rhine Terrace’) and the majestic Roter Hang (‘Red Slope’). Winegrowers like Gunderloch, St. Antony and Kühling-Gillot were largely responsible for resurrecting this region’s reputation and producing some of Germany’s most profoundly spicy, savoury expressions of Riesling there.

Meanwhile, a roster of star producers – Klaus-Peter Keller, Wittmann, Battenfeld-Spanier, Dreissigacker and others – have brought new attention to the gentle limestone hills of the Wonnegau in the south.

Pfalz

The Pfalz, which extends south of Rheinhessen to Germany’s border with Alsace in France, is one of Germany’s driest, warmest wine-growing regions.

The northern Mittelhaardt is the historic centre of the Pfalz. This is ‘where power players like Bassermann-Jordan, Dr Bürklin-Wolf, Müller-Catoir and Christmann command big prices for their ornate Rieslings’, says Evan Spingarn, a German wine specialist and portfolio manager for US importer, David Bowler Wine.

But, he adds, ‘the moral centre of the region lies a few miles north where producers like Koehler-Ruprecht [champions classically] barrel-aged… dry wines from loess and limestone’.

The Südliche Weinstrasse, or southern region of the Pfalz, is characterised by ‘warm breezes, sunshine and fruit trees [that] are as close to a Mediterranean vibe as Germany is ever likely to get’, Spingarn says, with leading producers including Ökonomierat Rebholz and Leiner.

Nahe

Tucked away in a pocket nearly enclosed by mountain ranges, the Nahe wine region is one of Germany’s smallest. While protected from harsh wind and rain, the region is often surprisingly cooler than vineyards in the Mosel or the Rheingau.

Riesling in Nahe shares a thrilling tendency towards focus and linearity but the region also boasts a wide range of soil types and an eye-opening diversity of Riesling styles.

The red slate soils of Monzingen in the warmer upper Nahe, for example, ‘offer more fruit and a sense of openness’, juxtaposed with ‘spice and piquant acidity’, says Werner Schönleber, who helms Emrich-Schönleber, his family winery.

Schönleber’s Riesling stands in bold contrast to the crystalline purity of Riesling sourced from the grey slate and volcanic rocks of Dönnhoff’s Hermannshöhle vineyard, or the chiseled, smoky minerality of Riesling from Schlossgut Diel’s Burgberg vineyard from the cooler lower Nahe region.

Away from these major regions, a new generation of winemakers in Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut – respectively Germany’s easternmost and northernmost wine regions, are worth watching closely.

Guide to reading a German Riesling wine label

Riesling famously enjoys a fervent following among sommeliers, critics and wine geeks alike. But for the everyday consumer or budding wine enthusiast, navigating through German Riesling labels can feel like a never-ending onslaught of unpronounceable quality classifications and vineyard designations.

Even distinguishing between a sweet or a dry German Riesling can overwhelm. At its most basic, wines labelled trocken are dry with little to no residual sugar. Feinherb or halbtrocken suggest wines that are just off-dry.

Even without familiarity with these terms, simply checking a Riesling’s alcohol content can provide significant insight. Typically, Riesling above 11.5% abv will taste dry. The lower the alcohol under 11.5%, the sweeter the wine will likely taste.

Traditionally, German Riesling was classified according to the Prädikate, designations indicating the ripeness levels of grapes at harvest regardless of how much sugar remained in wine after fermentation.

Starting with Kabinett, the spectrum swerved riper with late-harvested Spätlese and then Auslese. Riper still are wines made from botrytised grapes, such as the intensely sweet Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese.

Eiswein (or ice wine) indicates exceptionally sweet wines from grapes frozen on the vine until their sugars concentrate.

Today, the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter or VDP, a selective association of nearly 200 of Germany’s quality wine producers, uses the Prädikat system to classify only wines with sweetness.

But producers outside of the VDP may still use the Prädikat system to signify late-harvest grapes that were fermented into dry wines like the often-confusing Spätlese Trocken (‘late-harvest dry’).

Parallel to the traditional Prädikat, VDP producers have adopted a Burgundian model classifying wines according to the specificity of their origin.

Gutswein indicates good wines at the base of the VDP quality pyramid – akin to a regional Bourgogne. Ortswein equates to village wines.

Erste Lage, meaning first site, is comparable to the Burgundian premier cru. And finally, at the top of the quality pyramid are the Grosse Lage, or great-site wines, similar to the Burgundian grand cru.

Grosse Lage wines that are dry are specified as Grosses Gewächs, meaning great growths, or GG for short.

Many consumers assume that German Riesling is typically sweet. But as German taste preferences have swung drier and drier in the last few decades, an increasing majority of German Riesling today is actually dry.

At the pinnacle of prestige today are Germany’s super-premium, powerfully wrought GG bottlings. Yet for many veteran German wine devotees, it’s the much less expensive Ortswein (village) category that delivers the most revealing expressions of Germany’s diverse terroir.

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Far-flung from the western heartland of Germany’s better-known wine regions, Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen are respectively, its most northerly and easterly wine regions.

Saale-Unstrut, stretching above the northern 51st parallel – alongside London and Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan – teeters at the northern limits of quality viticulture. Sachsen, just two hours east and a touch south by car, extends as far east as Brandenburg at Germany’s border with Poland.

Together, these two small and isolated regions account for less than 1% of Germany’s total annual wine production.

Anna’s pick of nine wines to try from Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut below

Even Germans tend to express scepticism when asked about the wines here. There’s this narrative of the east that’s still shaded by the darkness of Communism, explains Matthias Hey, the winemaker of the family-owned Weingut Hey in Saale-Unstrut.

This is why visitors to these regions may be surprised to find that today, Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen are perhaps one of Germany’s most evocative and even avant-garde wine regions.

Certainly, not everything produced is exceptional. Combined, the regions boast only six members of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP), the exclusive association of quality German wine producers.

But the overwhelmingly young, uniquely spirited generation of winemakers who lead Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen today are carving out an unexpectedly bold new chapter of German winemaking.

A region both young and old

Despite the northerly extremes, winegrowing thrives on the steep, south-facing slopes that rise out from river valleys here. Saale-Unstrut is nestled in the valleys of the Saale and Unstrut rivers between Weimar and Leipzig. Sachsen extends along the Elbe River, centred around the towns of Meissen and Dresden.

The climate is deeply continental marked by extreme winter cold and deadly spring frosts. But vines that survive the winter are rewarded with sun-drenched growing seasons marked by cool nights and some of the lowest precipitation levels in Germany.

As throughout Europe, winemaking in these regions likely spans at least a millennium but repeated wars and upheaval took a heavy toll on its development. Whatever quality viticulture survived phylloxera in the 19th century was effectively erased under the Soviet-backed East German regime.

By 1945, privately owned wineries had been consolidated into state-run cooperatives. To satisfy the demands of the Eastern Bloc, viticulture shifted from ancient single vineyards on labour-intensive terraced slopes to high-yielding, mechanised production of workhorse grapes like Müller-Thurgau.

‘The German Democratic Republic [GDR, the official name for East Germany] destroyed much of our history,’ explains Alexander Hey, Matthias’ husband. ‘It’s why, unlike everywhere else in Germany, ‘we don’t have [many] wineries that were founded in the 14th century.’

But the erasure of the past has served, paradoxically, to liberate these regions from the constraints and obligations of tradition too. Indeed, nearly every winemaker in this part of Germany is only a first or second-generation producer. Many of the best are barely 30 years old.

Sachsen

It was the passion and grit of trailblazers like Dr. Georg Prinz zur Lippe of Schloss Proschwitz who set the stage for quality viticulture in Sachsen in the aftermath of reunification.

Vineyards surrounding Proschwitz Castle, the ancestral seat of the aristocratic Lippe-Weissenfeld family had been cultivated by monks as early as the 12th century.

In 1945, Prinz zur Lippe’s parents were arrested and later expelled by the Soviet Army to the west. His family’s holdings were expropriated with no compensation.

Prinz zur Lippe, born after his family’s exile, was a successful management consultant in Munich but returned to Sachsen after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Piece by piece, he bought back his family’s derelict property and succeeded in building a modern, high-quality winery, today the largest privately owned in the eastern part of Germany.

While Prinz zur Lippe’s reclamation of his ancestral past is remarkable, more impactful, perhaps, is the catalytic role his investment played in paving the path for the future.

One of Sachsen’s most dynamic producers is Martin Schwarz who spent 16 years as Prinz zur Lippe’s winemaker. After obtaining a graduate degree at Geisenheim, he admitted a job in Sachsen wasn’t his first choice.

But Schwarz fell in love with the region’s steep granite slopes, its hidden single vineyards and the opportunity, ‘to start something new out of virtually nothing’.

Granite freshness

Historically, Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut were known predominantly for delicate white wines, sometimes quite thin, the product of much cooler climates and grapes like Müller-Thurgau, Traminer, Goldriesling or Elbling.

Hints of that classic style, crisp and easy drinking with bright acidity and delicate fruit flavours can still be evidenced to good effect in high-quality producers like Karl Friedrich Aust or Frédéric Fourré in Sachsen, explains Silvio Nitzsche, a sommelier and podcast producer in Dresden who has followed the evolution of these regions’ wines closely.

But Sachsen’s granite soils, a rarity in most of Germany, is expressive terroir for stylish, increasingly opulent expressions of varieties like Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris or Chardonnay.

And while limited in quantity, red varieties like Pinot Noir and Blaufränkisch have proven successful, and even some Nebbiolo thanks to Schwarz. Tasted blind, there’s always a distinct minerality, said Schwarz, ‘a smokiness of firestone’ and an expression of acidity that’s weightless yet stirring.

Despite rising temperatures, Sachsen produces wines of longevity and complexity without high alcohol or dense extraction – ‘it’s the freshness of granite’ – explains Matthias Schuh, the second-generation winemaker of Weingut Schuh, established by his father in 1990.

Schuh, who returned to Sachsen after extensive work abroad, most notably at Te Whare Ra, the biodynamic New Zealand producer, stands out as one of the region’s most visionary young winemakers.

His flagship wines, fine, filigreed expressions of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, are sourced in yields as low as 30 hl/ha from Klausenberg, a historic granite monopol restored and cultivated organically by his family.

Saale-Unstrut

Situated between the tourist-heavy cultural anchors of Dresden and Meissen, winemakers in Sachsen have little trouble selling their wines, even at prices above those from other German regions, notes Nitzsche.

Saale-Unstrut doesn’t benefit from as robust a ready-made market. Yet this challenge seems to have pushed its winemakers towards a greater degree of innovation and dynamism.

Weingut Hey is one of eight members of Breitengrad 51 (Latitude 51), a ‘kind of think tank,’ as Matthias Hey describes it, for like-minded winegrowers in Saale-Unstrut to connect, exchange ideas and innovate.

Wines from members like Hey, Böhme & Töchter, Weingut Born or Winzerhof Gussek are diverse but share a riveting sense of exuberance and clarity. Tasting their wines collectively, it’s hard not to recall the kinetic energy of associations like Message in a Bottle that transformed Rheinhessen just a generation or two ago.

The diverse make-up of soils in Saale-Unstrut – large proportions of shell limestone mixed with sandstone, loess and loam – is reminiscent of its closest neighbour to the west, Franken. While Müller-Thurgau is still the most planted variety here, it’s rapidly being replaced with varieties like Pinot Blanc and Riesling.

With consistently warmer climates, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir are what many of Saale-Unstrut’s quality producers claim will best represent this region’s future.

Silvaner too is uniquely suited to Saale-Unstrut, explains Konrad Buddrus, whose saline, earthen expressions of Silvaner have become a calling card for Konni & Evi, the tiny winery he operates with his wife, Eva-Maria Wehner.

Ripening consistently in cool vintages while maintaining acidity in hot ones, ‘Silvaner here is more filigreed than what you find in Franken, brighter and more acid-driven,’ he said.

Unfolding stories

Buddrus, a native to Saale-Unstrut, trained in Franken and abroad in New Zealand and Austria before returning to farm an abandoned single vineyard on steep slopes he purchased on eBay.

Since 2016, the couple has focused almost exclusively on similar plots of old, low-yielding Silvaner and Riesling planted before the GDR, some as early as the 1930s.

The challenging terrain makes for backbreaking work, but for Buddrus, it’s the purest expression of Saale-Unstrut. Their slim, minimalist wines contrast the increasingly polished style of their peers, but their uniqueness has established Konni & Evi as the region’s most recognisable ambassadors abroad.

Indeed, 80% of their wines are sold outside of Germany, largely in Japan, the UK, Denmark, Canada and the United States.

With the exception of wines from producers like Konni & Evi or Schloss Proschwitz, few wines from Saale-Unstrut or Sachsen have been exported outside their local market. Indeed, with such limited production and robust local demand, there’s been little financial impetus to do so.

Yet as Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen continue to shape their own, distinct identities, honing in on their unique terroir and rewriting their own viticultural heritage, it’s clear that the stories unfolding are too compelling to remain a secret much longer.

Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut: Nine wines to try

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Caro Maurer MW, Svetoslav Manolev MS and Marcel Orford-Williams tasted 40 wines, with 4 Outstanding and 9 Highly Recommended.

German whites beyond Riesling: Panel tasting scores

40 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 4

Highly recommended 9

Recommended 18

Commended 4

Fair 5

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release, dry white wines from any region in Germany, single varietal or blend (in which Riesling could be included, but not as the dominant variety)

Riesling casts a large shadow in German vineyards. With some 24,400ha planted (DWI/Statistisches Bundesamt data for 2023), the German flagship variety occupies a quarter of the 103,687ha of vineyards (which are about two-thirds white varieties).

Though less recognised, other white grapes do exist – and can certainly produce top-class wines. This was demonstrated in the 40 wines reviewed at this panel tasting.

Scroll down to see the top results from the German whites beyond Riesling panel tasting

Germany is the world leader in plantings of Silvaner (4,330ha in 2023) and Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder in German, 6,318ha). Although Silvaner originally comes from Austria and Pinot Blanc from France, both varieties seem to be more integrated into German vineyards than in their homelands.

Pinot Gris (or Grauburgunder, 8,372ha) and Chardonnay (2,912ha) also make their quality contribution to this selection of German whites, with the latter featuring in four of the 13 wines scoring 90 points or more.

Muscat, Sauvignon Blanc, the German variety Scheurebe and Gutedel (also known as Chasselas), as well as Viognier and Marsanne and the rare Faberrebe (a cross between Chardonnay and Müller-Thurgau), were also on show. The wine styles varied from fruity and fresh to serious and highly complex.

Rising quality

Chardonnay, in particular, demonstrates a class of its own, as illustrated by the two wines achieving 95 points or more. Svetoslav Manolev MS saw an opportunity for German Chardonnays, especially as the prices for the wines from Burgundy continue to rise steeply.

‘Germany today offers very good natural conditions for Chardonnay: cooler than Burgundy and warm enough for the variety to fully ripen,’ he said. Climate change certainly plays a role in this – and in general a positive role for Germany as a whole, so far.

Marcel Orford-Williams agreed, adding that over the last 15 years the quality of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris from Germany has also improved significantly – although the management of wood in the winemaking can be an issue.

‘German wine-growers first had to learn to understand the right relationship between wine and barrel,’ he said.

See all the wines from the German whites beyond Riesling panel tasting

Promising Pinot Blanc

Both experts are convinced that Pinot Blanc is the country’s most promising white grape beyond Riesling. As Orford-Williams put it: ‘Today, Chardonnay is available from almost every wine-growing region in the world. Pinot Blanc from Germany, on the other hand, is unique.’

In Alsace, Pinot Blanc doesn’t have the status as a noble grape, yet in Germany wine-growers are making top-notch dry wines with the variety – namely those originating from Grosses Gewächs sites (literally ‘great growths’, or equivalent to grand cru in France) as classified in regions such as Baden and Pfalz under the regulations of the VDP assocation (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter).

Silvaner, on the other hand, is all too easily overlooked when bottled on its own. The grape variety doesn’t leave much of an impression at first glance – green apple is typical of its flavours, but the same can also be said for several other varieties.

It seems it may be more palatable than Riesling for some wine lovers, however, according to Orford-Williams, as reflected in The Wine Society’s ‘successful’ Ruppertsberg Pfalz Trocken blend of the two (2023, £7.75 The Wine Society).

Manolev added that Silvaner is ‘particularly popular with customers who have more wine experience’, especially if it comes from from a Grosse Lage (VDP classified vineyard), he added – ‘then it reflects its origins’.

German whites beyond Riesling panel tasting scores

Wines were tasted blind

The judges

Caro Maurer MW is a German food and wine writer, and a WSET- and MW-level educator. A DWWA Regional Chair, she also contributes to Bonn’s daily newspaper GeneralAnzeiger and food and wine title Der Feinschmecker.

Svetoslav Manolev MS is London regional sales manager for merchant Berkmann Wine Cellars. The first Bulgarian to qualify as a Master Sommelier, in 2019, he is also a DWWA judge for categories including Austria and Germany.

Marcel Orford-Williams is a wine buyer for The Wine Society, covering southern and regional French wines and Germany. He is a longstanding DWWA judge, and was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for services to French wine.

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In late summer 2024, the winegrowers of the VDP presented their Grosses Gewächs whites from 2023 and reds from 2022 at this year’s tasting in Wiesbaden.

See Caro Mauer MW’s top 30 recommendations below

The annual event

It’s an annual marathon, albeit a seated one, where the only movement comes from lifting your glass.

That’s the essence of the presentation tasting for the new vintages of the Grosses Gewächse (GG) wines.

Only produced by members of the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter, the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates), the release of these ‘grand cru’ level wines is highly anticipated.

This year, the red wines from the 2022 vintage were in the spotlight, while the white wines were predominantly from the 2023 vintage.

Around 200 wine experts from all over the world travelled to Wiesbaden to taste as many GGs as possible over three days.

A total of 462 wines were served in flights of up to six wines, organised by grape variety and origin.

The experts sit in silence from morning to night in the bright colonnades of the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, raising glass after glass, and filling page after page of their notebooks with the ratings.

And at the end of each day, it almost feels like you’ve actually completed a marathon. Each glass seems heavier than the last, as you struggle from flight to flight at an ever slower pace, except that it’s not your muscles that ache but your teeth from all that tartaric acid.

The results made it all worth it though. After 2018, the 2022 vintage is likely the best-ever for German Pinot Noir.

Vintage 2023, on the other hand, was not an easy one for the whites. The range of quality is much wider here.

Only those who accurately committed to early harvest were able to bottle what might be described as more classic wines.

A glimpse into the future

In simple terms, GGs refer to the best dry wines from the finest sites. They are rare, comprising only 0.4% of the total wine production of the country.

Moreover, they are not cheap, with an average price of around €49 a bottle. White wines can be released to the market from 1 September of the year following harvest, while red wines are available on 1 September after two years.

It is not easy to taste these young wines now, let alone to assess them. After all, the Grosse Gewächse are called so because they usually harbour great potential for development.

They often need years before they reveal all their facets and show their best side. The chief reason for tasting them so young is how hard they would be to find later.

Given this, the tasting in Wiesbaden can only be a snapshot – a glimpse into the future.

The verdict: 2022 reds

The 2022 vintage was notably warm and dry, which benefited the red wines, particularly Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Lemberger.

‘It was the best vintage for red wines that we ever experienced in Germany,’ recalled Klaus Peter Keller.

‘Even finer than 2018, because it was not quite as hot and the aromatic ripeness progressed more slowly and the sugar value did not increase excessively this time.’

Keller’s 2022 Pinot Noir from the Morstein vineyard is one of the best. Its resemblance to Burgundy is marked; it reminds me of a Gevrey-Chambertin – the wine is simply world-class.

The wines from the Centgrafenberg and Hundsrück vineyards of the Rudolf Fürst winery are also among the finest Pinot Noirs: elegant and radiantly beautiful, with tannins so silky that they seem to be wearing a dinner jacket.

Julian Huber from the Bernhard Huber winery in Baden is also no slouch with his Schlossberg and Wildenstein from the Bienenberg.

However, his wines appear more modern and determined, flirting with a slight reduction that cloaks the fruit of cherries and raspberries in graphite and cold smoke.

For the first time in 2022, a Pinot Noir from the Mosel also ranks among the top wines: Maximin Grünhaus’ Abtsberg with its polished, international style.

The verdict: 2023 whites

In contrast, 2023 proved to be more challenging for white wines. First, there was drought in spring, followed by persistent rain and warm temperatures that encouraged fungal diseases.

The weather stabilised in September, leading to a super-fast harvest, as everything was suddenly ripe at the same time.

Manual labour was necessary to sort and harvest healthy grapes. Throughout the summer of 2023, the employees of Tim Fröhlich at Schäfer-Fröhlich were kept on their toes constantly.

With the rain promoting foliage growth, the leaves in the fruit zone had to be removed repeatedly.

And the hard work put in by winemakers such as Tim Fröhlich and Hansjörg Rebholz certainly paid off in their wines.

The 2023 Felseneck and Kastanienbusch Rieslings from each respectively are exceptional wines, already displaying the promise of future greatness.

The best of the best also included the 2023 Treppchen (still a barrel sample) from Weingut Dr. Loosen on the Mosel: intense, still quite young, but already polished.

Other top producers who shone include: Weil and Künstler in the Rheingau, Kühling-Gillot and Wittmann in Rheinhessen, and Battenfeld Spanier, Philipp Kuhn, and Christmann in the Pfalz.

A newcomer among my favourites is the Kalmit GG from Weingut Kranz, which is an absolute bargain among the top wines.

Although the 2023 white wines need choosing with care, anyone who buys them now with an eye to drinking them in 10 years’ time can look forward to a great return on investment.

Best of the new Grosses Gewächs releases

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German vineyards in several regions suffered frost damage in late April and insurance group Allianz Agrar has said it expects payouts on customer claims to be in the ‘double-digit million’ range.

It’s still assessing damage, but it described the late spring frosts as the worst in at least 40 years.

‘I have experienced many late-frost years, but I have never seen anything like this,’ said Martin Heiß, head of claims for crop insurance at Allianz Agrar. ‘The frost came at the worst possible moment for the vines.’

Warm temperatures up to mid-April meant that vineyards were already at a relatively advanced stage in the early growing season, leaving them more exposed when temperatures plunged as low as minus seven degrees Celsius at night, according to the company.

A German Wine Institute spokesperson told Decanter, ‘The frost damage has been severe for several wine producers, especially in the north of the wine growing regions of Baden, Württemberg and parts of Franconia.’

Around 80% of vines were also damaged in the eastern regions of Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut.

He said the situation is very hard for affected producers, although the impact on Germany’s overall 2024 wine harvest is likely to be relatively low.

Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut, for example, constitute around 1.3% of the country’s total vineyard area of 103,687 hectares.

Allianz Agrar said its experts would visit more than 30,000 vineyards in the coming weeks to provide final damage assessments. It said some wineries were facing the loss of their 2024 grape harvest.

While frost impact may vary between specific sites in one area, vines may also partially compensate for any losses via a second budding – although the success of this is hard to predict.

Germany’s Wine Institute said in mid-June that the crucial flowering period had gone well for vineyards unaffected by frost, although second budding was delayed at frost-damaged sites.

Müller-Thurgau and ‘Burgundy’ grape varieties are known to still produce some flowers after second budding, but this is not so much the case for Riesling, it added.

Allianz Agrar highlighted the importance of multi-risk insurance to protect against extreme weather events.

Researchers have said climate change heightens the potential impact of frosts in vineyards, because warmer winters have brought forward the growing season – leaving more young buds vulnerable to a sudden cold snap.

Late spring frosts across Europe in 2017 caused an estimated €3.3bn of damage to fruit and wine growers, of which around €600m was insured, according to a 2018 report by insurance group Munich Re – cited by a study published in the Climate Risk Management journal in 2023.

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Today, the Mosel is a region steeped in deference to its history. New generations of winemakers rarely stray from family recipes, which have helped establish some of the top Riesling houses with hundreds of years of winemaking pedigree.

Even in this special part of the wine-growing world, Ernst Loosen‘s new Zach. Bergweiler-Prüm wines show an impressive regard for an era when Riesling produced here was some of the most sought-after and highly-priced wine in the world.

Bergweiler-Prüm was Ernst Loosen’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side. He was a significant producer in the Middle Mosel, having established a renowned winery in the village of Wehlen. It was Zacharias who married into Mosel royalty in the Prüm family.

Loosen’s project utilises his great-grandfather’s original cellar to produce the wines, with a significant effort to remain true to the era in which Bergweiler-Prüm was growing and making Riesling.

Each wine comes from a different parcel of the Grosse Lage site, Wehlener Sonnenuhr. The vines are 130 years old and farmed as they would have been in those days. Loosen has also used vine training practices that were used during his great-grandfather’s era.

Only natural and historically appropriate items are used to transport the fruit to the winery, tie back vine shoots or cultivate the soils. ‘I wanted to gain experience with very low-intervention viticulture and winemaking, the way my great-grandfather did it,’ said Loosen.

The three wines are a dry Riesling Grosses Gewächs (GG), an off-dry Kabinett, and a partially botrytised Auslese. Each is made in a style of Bergweiler-Prüm’s era and can depart from the well-known styles that have come to fashion since the German Wine Law of 1971. The Auslese is made in a less sweet style than many contemporary counterparts.

In the cellar, faithfulness to the past is maintained. The wines are all pressed in a restored basket press from 1910, and they ferment spontaneously in neutral, 1,000-litre German oak Fuder casks. There is no racking nor bâtonnage while they mature on the full lees for 24 months. Extended barrel maturation was the normal practice in Bergweiler-Prüm’s era. It gave the wines time to clarify and stabilise without the use of modern technology.

After bottling, the wines are held for an additional four years prior to release.

One Fuder (or about 1,300 bottles) of each 2018 wine was made. They will be sold in mixed three-packs and exclusively through négociants on La Place.

‘These wines are a journey into our past when German Rieslings had been the world’s most prized wines,’ said Loosen. ‘They are precious to me, and I want to share them with serious wine collectors around the globe. I’m happy to be able to offer them through the La Place de Bordeaux network.’

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At just 85km long, the Ahr river runs along a valley that’s home to arguably the finest Pinot Noir-producing region in Germany. One of the country’s smallest wine regions, the Ahr yielded about 6.1 million bottles a year on average from 2017-2022. The fervent local demand for Ahr Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) means that, frustratingly for Pinot lovers around the globe, only meagre quantities find their way onto the export market.

The region takes its name from the Ahr, a winding, twisting tributary of the Rhine, better described on most days as a creek. But a devastating flood in July 2021 transformed this diminutive river into one of Germany’s most catastrophic natural disasters, overshadowing the fame of the region’s wines.

More than 130 people perished in the Ahr valley and all but a handful of the region’s 42 wine producers suffered flood damage, many losing their homes and wineries entirely.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for 20 Ahr Valley Pinot Noirs

Deadly floods are not unfamiliar in this narrow valley, where villages are anchored near the rivers. ‘Everyone knows a great flood happens here every 100 years,’ says Meike Näkel who, with her sister Dörte, runs Weingut Meyer-Näkel. The flood destroyed their winery, along with most of their 2020 vintage.

Climate change has exacerbated incidents of flooding and other extreme weather in the region, explains Näkel. And it has made the weather much harder to predict. ‘We know there will be a next flood and perhaps sooner than in 100 years,’ she says.

Saved by the slopes

Three years after the flood, the valley is still an active construction zone with gutted homes and businesses, wrecked roads and bridges still lingering. According to Hans-Jörg Lüchau, operations manager and winemaker of Weingut Deutzerhof, as well as the manager of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter office in Ahr, only 20ha of the Ahr’s vineyards in the flatlands near the river were permanently destroyed. Thankfully, the steep inclines where most of the region’s vineyards are planted were largely untouched by the floodwaters.

Despite the deep trauma that hangs over the region still, resilience and optimism abound. The flood prompted an outpouring of support from people across Germany – and from within the wine trade around the world – and an influx of reconstruction funds, a silver lining to the tragedy. Wineries throughout the valley are rebuilding with upgraded facilities and the most modern equipment.

‘There’s a great deal of potential for producers to take things to a new level, even higher than it was before the flood,’ says Lüchau.

Balancing on the edge

But the catastrophe also triggered debate in the Ahr about how to address future threats. Julia Bertram and Benedikt Baltes, owners of the winery Bertram-Baltes (pictured, opposite), are increasingly concerned about not only climatic instability but political instability, too. While the winery has been certified organic since 2019, Bertram concedes that even further steps towards ecologically sound cellar and vineyard practices are necessary for the region to become both self-reliant and sustainable.

‘Wines from the Ahr are defined by our northerly latitude and slate soils,’ says Bertram.

Situated north of the 50th parallel (similar to prime vineyard sites across the southern counties of England), the Ahr is a cool-climate wine region at the precipice of marginality for wine-growing.

Still, the Ahr valley is planted with more than 85% red varieties – a higher percentage than any other region in Germany. According to Wines of Germany (DWI), in 2019 Pinot Noir made up more than 65% of the vines planted in the Ahr, along with growing percentages (6%) of exemplary Frühburgunder, or Pinot Noir Précoce. Riesling was the most plentiful white grape but comprised only 8% of vines.

Surprisingly, though, the average temperature in the Ahr is warmer than in regions further south, such as the Mosel. Temperatures in the valley are lifted by the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream, while the rain shadow of the nearby Eifel mountains to the west shields the valley from cold wind and hail.

Because the Ahr river is oriented from west to east, its northern banks are edged by south-facing inclines (as high as 75% in parts of the Mönchberg at Mayschoss) providing optimal exposure for vines. Overhangs of stone and the darkly coloured slate, greywacke (dark, hard sandstone) and volcanic soils absorb warmth in the day and radiate heat at night.

The Ahr is one of the few regions in the world where Pinot Noir is grown on slate. ‘Pinot Noir reacts quite extremely to different soil types and the slate soils here, combined with the cooler climate of the Ahr, drive an expression that’s totally unique,’ says Näkel.

Ahr at a glance

Area planted: 562ha before the 2021 flood, now about 542ha (source: Hans-Jörg Lüchau, VDP Ahr)

Key grapes: 65% Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), 6% Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce), 8% Riesling (Wines of Germany, 2019)

Producers: 42 plus three cooperatives

Annual production (75cl bottles): 2022 6.8 million, 2021 5.3m, 2020 5.4m, 2019 5.5m, 2018 7.8m, 2017 6.3m (Deutscher Wein Statistik annual reports)

Soil types: Steep rock formations of Devonian slate and greywacke are exposed in the middle Ahr valley to the west. In the lower Ahr valley to the east, slate is partially covered with loam, loess and sand

Eight Ahr producers to know

Bertram-Baltes, Dernau: A winery born out of the 2018 marriage of Julia Bertram and Benedikt Baltes, two natives of the Ahr who had already established independent reputations for excellent Spätburgunder. Focused on freshness rather than power, their winemaking reflects confidence in the unique identity of the Ahr. Certified organic. bertram-baltes.com

Burggarten, Heppingen: The Schäfer family has grown grapes in the Ahr for four generations but the family domaine was established in 1989 when Pauljo and Gitta Schäfer purchased Burggarten, a defunct local cooperative. Today, Burggarten is operated by their three sons Paul-Michael, Heiko and Andreas. While 80% of the estate is planted with Spätburgunder, the estate is well known for Frühburgunder, Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), too. Member of: VDP.weingut-burggarten.de

Deutzerhof, Mayschoss-Ahr: Set back a distance from the Ahr river, Deutzerhof is nestled in the Mönchberg vineyard – an amphitheatre of slate and greywacke spanning almost 2km. Written records of the winery exist as early as 1574, and it is known now for fresh-fruited, peppery expressions of Spätburgunder and an exceptionally fragrant, structured Frühburgunder from the Herrenberg Grosse Lage vineyard (see p69). Member of: VDP, Fair’n Green. deutzerhof.de

HJ Kreuzberg, Dernau Weingut: Kreuzberg’s production is dominated by excellent examples of Spätburgunder and Frühburgunder – particularly the finely textured Hardtberg GG. The domaine was established in 1953 when Hermann-Josef Kreuzberg left his local cooperative and is helmed today by his grandson Ludwig Kreuzberg. Member of: VDP.weingut-kreuzberg.de

JJ Adeneuer, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler: The Adeneuer family’s wine-growing legacy spans more than three hundred years, but it was brothers Marc and Frank Adeneuer who, after they took over from their aunt in 1984, catapulted the estate with their richly concentrated expressions of Spätburgunder. The crown jewel of the estate is the GG Gärkammer (see p68), from a 0.68ha monopole owned by the Adeneuer family since 1714. Member of: VDP. adeneuer.de

Jean Stodden, Rech: The Stodden family has tended vines in the Ahr since 1578. Spätburgunder is Stodden’s overwhelming focus and comprises at least 90% of its vines. The jewels of the estate are ungrafted centenarian Spätburgunder vines that have been propagated by massal selection throughout their vineyards. Stodden’s wines are perfumed, finely finessed and ageworthy. Member of: VDP, Fair’n Green, AmBiTo. stodden.de

Nelles, Heimersheim: Nelles is one of the few producers in the Ahr producing Spätburgunder in volcanic basalt soils. Their powerhouse wines, labelled ‘B’ to signify their time in barrique, contrast their sleek, perfumed 1 Ahr Spätburgunder. Records suggest the family had been wine-growing in the Ahr as early as 1479. Today their estate is operated by father and son Thomas and Philip Nelles. Member of: VDP, Fair’n Green.weingut-nelles.de

Meyer-Näkel, Dernau: Meike and Dörte Näkel have lent uniquely vibrant, perfumed touches to their father’s legacy of outstanding Spätburgunder. In the aftermath of the 2021 flood, nine barrels of their single-vineyard wines were recovered, some having drifted nearly 7km from the winery. Called the Lost Barrels project, the wines were released at events in Berlin, Bangkok and New York City. Member of: VDP, Fair’n Green. meyer-naekel.de

Key terms

VDP: The Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter, an independent association of about 200 top wine producers across Germany, which identifies and regulates the very best vineyard sites – Grosse Lage (the dry wines from which are known as Grosses Gewächs) followed by Erste Lage.

Fair’n Green: Recognised sustainability certification in agriculture and nutrition, members subject to annual audit.

AmBiTo: Germany-wide project promoting biodiversity in viticulture.

Evolution of a region

Until the 1990s, the Ahr produced mostly easy-drinking, often sweet red and rosé wines. In a region where achieving consistent ripeness was historically a struggle, warming climates over the recent decades were largely a boon. Grapes ripen weeks earlier than they did a generation ago, but the region boasts a long growing season with dry, sunny days and cool nights during the harvest, which serves to preserve acidity, as Bertram explains: ‘Our wines have complexity and density, even if alcohol levels are low.’

It was producers such as Meyer-Näkel, Jean Stodden and JJ Adeneuer who sparked a quality revolution in the Ahr in the late 1980s. ‘My father’s generation looked to Burgundy as a model for quality,’ says Meike Näkel. Her father Werner Näkel honed in on the estate’s best sites, exchanged workhorse vines for Burgundy clones and imported French barriques.

Thanks to their parents, says Näkel, ‘my generation just had to focus on fine-tuning how to better express our terroir in our wines’. Equipped with winemaking degrees from prestigious universities and internships with top Pinot Noir producers in Burgundy, New Zealand, Oregon and beyond, the new generation of winemakers in the Ahr also brought a global perspective to this isolated region.

It used to be that everyone here was trying to make wines like Burgundy,’ says Deutzerhof’s Lüchau. ‘But we have completely different soils and a different climate. Winemakers today are finding our own styles that we can then compare against Burgundy,’ he says.

In the wake of Brexit, the global pandemic and the 2021 flood, there is a notable decline in the number of Ahr producers exporting their wines. But the wines of the Ahr are a rare expression of Pinot Noir well worth seeking out. The Ahr valley itself is an attraction – a historic resort area less than half an hour’s drive from Bonn or an hour from Cologne. It’s renowned year-round for its spa towns, hiking and cycling trails; the Rotweinwanderweg (‘red-wine hiking trail’) connects more than 35km of wine towns west to east from Altenahr to Bad Bodendorf.

In the face of its recent adversity, the Ahr region and its wines persist as testament to resilience and the enduring pursuit of excellence in winemaking.

Pinot delights: 20 Ahr Valley Pinot Noirs to try

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The name Maximin Grünhaus has long been among the top legacies in Germany’s Mosel-Saar-Ruwer wine region.

Over the decades the name has consistently drawn eager bids at the famed Grosser Ring or ‘Great Ring’, the annual wine auction in Trier, with buyers happy to pay among the highest amounts to snap up barrels of Grünhaus Riesling that aren’t marketed elsewhere.

Located in Mertesdorf, just outside of the city of Trier, along the thin ribbon of the Ruwer River, the Grünhaus estate, the arched gate framing a manor house which dates to 1597 and, behind the house, its steeply sloping vineyards, cuts an impressive figure in this equally impressive landscape.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 16 new releases from Maximin Grünhaus

Historic in many ways

The Maximin Grünhaus estate was given to the Benedictine monks as the monastery of Saint-Maximin of Trier in the year 966 CE. Seized by Napoleon in the 18th century, it was acquired at auction by an ancestor of the von Schubert family in 1882, and now Maximin von Schubert, the sixth generation, owns and operates the legendary estate, having taken over from his father Carl in 2014.

In an interesting twist: Karl Marx’s father owned two hectares of vines on the modern-day Grünhaus estate in the Herrenberg Grosse Lage parcel. Heinrich Marx, a lawyer from Trier, bought the vineyard land as an investment.

When his father died in 1838, Karl Marx took ownership of the vineyard until his mother purchased it from him. Marx sold the last five full barrels of the family’s Riesling upon his mother’s death. While Marx may have eschewed the concept of profiting off personal property, he seems to have made an exception for Grünhaus Riesling.

Maximin’s great-great-great-grandfather bought the estate because of its long-held reputation. Documents from the 16th and 17th centuries show that the rate charged for grapes from Grünhaus vineyards was two and half times that from other nearby vines, a sign of the esteem garnered over the years. It remains a sterling expression of German Riesling today.

Many shades of green

The name ‘Grünhaus’ translates to ‘green house’ and dates back to 600 CE. There is plenty of speculation about the origins of the name, though, as it was not a colour historically associated with Saint-Maximin of Trier. There are theories of course. This portion of the Ruwer Valley where the one-time abbey stands remains verdant and largely undeveloped. The Grünhaus estate includes 34ha of vineyards, and the nearby lush Grünhauser forest (also owned by the estate) grows over much of the land.

The hill where the vineyards sit, the Grüneberg, has blue Devonian and red slates towards the top. Maximin von Schubert tells me the slate goes greenish in colour in some places. While he’s not sure of the chemical composition, he’s often found it in the roots of downed oak trees in the forest next to the vineyards. It’s likely veins of igneous diabase, a greenish basaltic rock which is found in the region.

On the other hand, the simplest explanation may be the most obvious. Renovations of the manor house in the 1980s showed evidence that, on more than one occasion, it was formerly painted green. So perhaps it was just that St Maximin lived in a green house.

A holy hierarchy

The three estate vineyards are the ‘Bruderberg’, the ‘Abtsberg’ and the ‘Herrenberg’ which run from right to left along the face of the unbelievably steep hillside. Like many of the top sites throughout the region, these names correspond to church hierarchies with wines of better quality going to those of higher rank. The south-facing slope of the Grüneberg is where the vineyards sit with gradients as steep as 70% in places.

Bruderberg

The Bruderberg is named for the simple ‘brothers’ of the Maximin Grünhaus priory when the abbey was established more than a thousand years ago, as the wines from this parcel were designated for their consumption. It is the smallest of the three sites, at only one hectare and planted exclusively to Riesling, at 140-170m in elevation with steep slopes between 50-70%. The soils are blue Devonian slate like the neighbouring Abtsberg cru.

The defining feature of the Bruderberg is that it abuts the forest on two sides. The forest protects the smaller parcel from cold winds from the north and west while also shading it from the afternoon sun almost completely. This means despite its lower elevation, it’s the coolest parcel of the three Grünhaus Grosse Lagen.

Herrenberg

The wines from the Herrenberg were designated for the abbey’s choirmasters; at 19ha, they must have done quite a bit of singing. Planted with both Riesling and Pinot Blanc, the size of this site lends it a good deal of diversity.

The Herrenberg sits between 190-290 metres with a gradient between 20-60%. There are sections of blue Devonian slate, with reddish slate (also Devonian in origin) appearing on the flatter portion of the cru, which abuts the forest. The slate breaks up, allowing the roots to go deeper, and at Grünhaus they believe this gives a spicy character to the wines.

Abtsberg

The Abtsberg sits dead-centre between the other two sites, representing the estate’s top wines, a veritable sweet spot of sorts. The wines from this site were designated for the Abbotts, the top of the monastery’s hierarchy. Pure blue Devonian slate, the Abtsberg slopes outwardly, facing both southeast and southwest at different orientations. This top site is 14ha in total, at heights of 140 to 270 metres and with gradients between 40-75%.

It is a legendary site and produces the estate’s top wines each vintage, some of the most age-worthy in all of Germany. The shallow, fossil-rich soils impart a more significant mineral impact to the wines than those from the slate subsoils. Pinot Noir is also planted in this Riesling-centric site, the top cru at Grünhaus.

Innovation meets tradition

Maximin von Schubert has been running Maximin Grünhaus since 2014. The young proprietor, named after the estate, believes that both the changing climate and modernity require innovation for things to retain their classical nature. His work maintaining character and elegance includes progressive stewardship of the vines and nearby forests and waterways.

‘Uniquely, we’re one of only three complete monopole estates in all of Germany,’ von Schubert explains. ‘We have 34ha of monopole vineyards and another 210ha of agricultural lands and forest. There is a great deal of stewardship that we are responsible for.’ For the region’s wines, mainly those made in the Prädikat style, to still be possible, progressive approaches to farming, viticulture, and even forestry will be necessary.

Climate change is unique in its challenge for Germany. Although warming temperatures in the near term have benefitted cool regions like the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, there are longer-term issues. Most glaringly are concerns about rising sugars without the accompanying acids, which have long made the ethereal Prädikat wines unique to this place. As temperatures continue to increase, crafting Kabinett or Auselese-style wines in some sites has become more vexing with every passing year, and German Eiswein production has almost entirely disappeared.

During my visit, von Schubert was experimenting with drones for spraying – something that hadn’t been used in the region up to that point, where they have historically sprayed the steep slopes by helicopter. Drones give them greater control and accuracy and are more sustainable and economical than flying helicopters.

His willingness to push what is possible regarding the best available technologies in vineyard management, while remaining steadfast to traditional approaches in the cellar, demonstrates his commitment to the estate’s 1,000-year-old traditions and his family and region’s future.

New releases from Maximin Grünhaus

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The Mosel River gets its start in the lower elevation Vosges mountain range in eastern France, flowing through Luxembourg before making its way to western Germany. It joins with the Rhine in Koblenz, but its middle section, known in German as the Mittelmosel, is where a series of conditions come together to produce some of the greatest white wines in the world.

Between the riverbanks and the steep slate slopes that jut skyward at seemingly impossible gradients, villages of varying degrees of bucolic charm dot the Mosel Valley. These sites offer wine lovers travelling the region plenty of places to stay, eat and explore one of Germany’s true treasures.

The history of wine cultivation in the Mosel Valley goes back to Roman times. Vineyards were planted along the river to provide wine for troops stationed in the region rather than transporting it from further afield. While the Mosel Valley represents Riesling royalty, for many Germans, the region stands out as a vacation spot for camping, cycling and gourmet dining in the valley’s quaint and quiet villages.

A river runs through it

The Mosel (along with the Douro Valley) may be one of the only wine regions in the world where you can see all of the valley’s top vineyard sites from the water. One of the best ways to get a real sense of the Mosel’s Grosse Lagen (equivalent to grands crus) is by riverboat. While there are several multi-day Mosel cruises, you can opt for a much shorter trip. A slow-winding, one-hour boat ride leaves from Bernkastel-Kues almost hourly in the high season and will take you past many of the most famous Riesling vineyards in all the world.

From the famous Bernkasteler Doctor above the town of Bernkastel-Kues with its legendary wines, the boat cruise passes Graacher Domprobst and Wehlener Sonnenuhr. It winds its way north to the steep red slates of Ürziger Würzgarten and Erdener Prälat. From there, you can disembark and visit the ruins of an ancient Roman wine press near the town of Erden, at the base of the region’s top vineyard sites.

Base camp in Bernkastel-Kues

The town of Bernkastel-Kues is well located for the Mosel Valley’s wine highlights, top vineyards and charming villages that dot the valley. The Bernkastel side of the river is particularly charming. It has a bustling character that lasts into the evening when some of the Mosel’s sleepier villages have shuttered for the day. The town has adorable half-timber architecture, a picturesque atmosphere, tiny alleyways and a lovely market square right out of a storybook; it’s a great place to station yourself to explore up and down the river.

Bernkastel-Kues sits in the shadow of the ruins of the Landshut castle that looms tall over this part of the Mosel dating to the 1200s, and some of the region’s most famous vineyards like Bernkasteler Doctor and Bernkasteler Lay. Pass through the Graach Gate, and you can wander the legendary hillside vineyards within 10 metres or so of town.

Bernkastel-Kues is complete with a number of great local restaurants, hotels and wine shops that carry some of the hardest-to-find Rieslings in the world.

Top tastings

Let’s face it: you came to the Mosel to taste some of the world’s best Rieslings, so you likely have a few places in mind. There is such a range of Riesling producers in the region and they can vary greatly in their size and accessibility. Do not plan to arrive without a prior appointment, or you may be greatly disappointed.

Weingut Willi Schaefer

In the tiny village of Graach, the iconic Willi Schaefer has been making wines for generations. The ethereal Rieslings are some of the most sought-after and still reasonably priced in all the world. It is a family operation (of two people), so appointments are required, and you should reach out as far in advance as possible. They will do their best to accommodate you. Appointments are from April to July only.

Weingut Willi Schaefer

Hauptstraße 130

54470 Graach an der Mosel

Germany

Tel: +49 (0) 6531 8041

Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm

In the village of Wehlen (just across the river from Graach), another name in Riesling royalty is that of J. J. Prüm. Perched just above the river with exceptional views of the sundial at the Wehlener Sonnenuhr Grosse Lage, the source of some of its most sought-after wines. The Rieslings are pure classic, off-dry expressions of clarity, depth and brilliance that refuse to chase the stylish Grosses Gewächs category. A visit to the tasting parlour at J. J. Prüm is highly sought after, and appointments are required.

Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm

Uferallee 19

54470 Bernkastel-Kues

Tel: +49 (0) 6531 3091

Weingut Dr. Loosen

Dr Erni Loosen is the greatest ambassador for the Mosel to the rest of the world. He has winery projects in the American states of Oregon and Washington, as well as Germany’s Pfalz. Loosen is a large producer with uncompromising quality. From dry Grosse Gewächse to numerous other wines made from Grosse Lagen to value Rieslings available at Costco, there is a high quality across the entire range. The Loosen winery has a large tasting space and patio to accommodate guests in the summer. Appointments are required for tasting.

Weingut Dr. Loosen

St. Johannishof 1

54470 Bernkastel-Kues

Tel: +49 (0) 6531 3426

Weingut Schloss Lieser Thomas Haag

The Riesling that Thomas Haag makes at his estate, Schloss Lieser, needs no introduction. Named for the adjacent Schloss Lieser castle, the winery and tasting room is open to the public. Haag, whose father Wilhelm founded Fritz Haag, restored the reputation of Schloss Lieser with the help of his wife Ute in the early 1990s and then purchased the estate. Schloss Lieser makes a wide range of Riesling, from classic Kabinett to bone-dry Grosse Gewächse wines, at a wide range of prices. The tasting room is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10am-5pm and Saturdays: 11am-3pm.

Weingut Schloss Lieser

Am Markt 1-5

54470 Lieser

Tel. +49 (0) 6531 6431

How to get there and around

There are two airport options close to the Middle Mosel. The large international Frankfurt Airport is less than a 2-hour drive away, but direct UK flights also go into Frankfurt-Hahn. A rental car is your most reliable way to get around the Mosel Valley. Given how small the villages are, public transit service is intermittent. Cars can be rented at either airport location.

Your Mosel Valley address book

Restaurants

German food is highly underrated, and the villages of the Middle Mosel are dotted with some fantastic restaurants. Here are my top recommendations.

Zeltinger Hof

You came to the Mosel Valley to drink Riesling, and no one has the list that Zeltinger Hof has assembled. The list features more than 2,200 bottles, over 2,000 of which are Riesling with vintages that date to 1901. In addition to a deep list, the restaurant offers wines at reasonable prices from names that are tough to find, like Keller, Schaefer and nine different wines by Egon Müller. The food at Zeltinger Hof is a fresh, seasonal take on German classics with plenty of creative preparation, and all of it is very reasonably priced. In the summer, there is plenty of outdoor seating at a charming square in the village of Zeltingen.

Zeltinger Hof

Kurfürstenstrasse 76

54492 Zeltingen-Rachtig

Tel: +49 (0) 6532 93 82 0

Culinarium at Weinromantikhotel Richtershof

High gastronomy and an extensive wine list with 10 pages of Mosel Riesling are on offer at Culinarium in the well-pointed Weinromantikhotel Richtershof, which boasts over 380 years of local history. The hotel is a former winery dating to the 17th century in the sleepy village of Mülheim. The restaurant serves thoughtful preparations, multi-course options with local specialities like the Bavarian duck breast and crispy pike perch. You can opt to pair dessert with a Trockenbeerenauslese from the 1940s or 50s.

Weinromantikhotel Richtershof

Hauptstrasse 81-83

54486 Mülheim

Tel: +49 (0) 6534 9480

Puricelli at Schloss Lieser

The 19th-century castle is now a Marriott Autograph Collection property offering hotel accommodation and a fantastic dining experience at Puricelli, with prix fixe options of both three and five courses with local wine pairings. Puricelli offers fresh modern takes on the German classics of both duck and venison, which pair well with local Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir).

Schloss Lieser

Moselstrasse 33

54470 Lieser

Tel: +49 (0) 6531 98 69 90

Accommodation

Deinhard’s

Deinhard’s is one of the first buildings you’ll see as you enter Bernkastel. The hotel is part of a larger complex that includes a spa, restaurant and a private members’ wine storage vault. Modern and luxurious with views across the river to the Kues side, or into the vineyards above the town, Deinhard’s is well-priced and perfectly located with a fantastic breakfast, parking garage and large, air-conditioned and well-furnished rooms. Deinhard’s opened in July of 2022 with a brand new interior inside a 17th-century building.

Gestade 12

54470 Bernkastel-Kues

Tel: +49 (0) 6531 971540

Weingut Dr. Loosen guesthouse

In addition to being one of the region’s leading names in wine, Erni Loosen is quite the host. The Dr. Loosen winery has a number of new guest rooms available in a building adjacent to the winery and tasting room. Accommodation comes with air-conditioning and breakfast included. There is always the possibility that you’ll bump into Erni or his equally famous dog running around the winery.

Weingut Dr. Loosen

St. Johannishof 1

54470 Bernkastel-Kues

Tel: +49 (0) 6531 3426

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The Mosel Valley is seemingly rife with winemakers named Prüm. Indeed, members of the Prüm family have inhabited the village of Wehlen, a wine-growing epicentre of the Mosel, as far back as the 12th century.

The bedrock for generations of wine-growing at Prüm’s was the original estate of S. A. Prüm, the winery established in the early 1800s by Sebastian Alois Prüm. It was Sebastian’s brother, Jodocus Prüm, who installed a sundial on a rocky outcrop of the Wehlener vineyards in 1842, lending the word Sonnenuhr, or sundial, to the vineyard’s name.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 10 Rieslings from Joh. Jos. Prüm

In 1911, S. A. Prüm was split among Sebastian’s seven grandchildren, the oldest being Johann Josef Prüm. S. A. Prüm and its descendant wineries still thrive in the Mosel, among them, Weins-Prüm and Studert-Prüm, but also Jos Christoffel Jun, Dr Loosen and Dr Pauly-Bergweiler. In the Rheingau, even Robert Weil is a Prüm descendant.

Of all the Prüms, however, no winery has become more iconic for its singular, even stalwart, expression of the Mosel than Joh. Jos. Prüm. The wines of J. J. Prüm are a celebration of the German wine classification system, Prädikatsweine – luminous, ethereal expressions of kabinett, spätlese and auslese, along with the rare (and astronomically pricey) beerenauslese, eiswein and trockenbeerenauslese.

The estate produces only Riesling, and although dry wines increasingly dominate both production and sales in Germany, J. J. Prüm produces virtually no dry wines.

Since 2003, the estate has been helmed by Dr. Katharina Prüm and her father Dr. Manfred Prüm, who succeeded his own father at the estate in 1969. For twenty years, they have served as co-owners and co-winemakers of the estate.

‘There was never any deliberate division of labour or duties,’ says Katharina. ‘At first, I was functioning more as an observer. I took on responsibilities step by step and now, as my father turns 90 [in 2024], maybe things have flipped,’ she says.

Jewels of the Middle Mosel

J. J. Prüm is anchored in Wehlen, a picturesque village of the Mittelmosel, or Middle Mosel. Compared to the cooler Saar and Ruwer valleys, the narrow, snaking valley of the Middle Mosel produces Riesling that is distinctly ripe, often brimming with fruit, yet racy, filigreed and electric too.

The estate’s holdings span 22ha in the heart of the Middle Mosel and include celebrated vineyards in Bernkasteler Badstube and Zeltinger Sonnenuhr. But the crown jewels of J. J. Prüm’s estate are its sites in the Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Himmelreich – two adjacent vineyards known to produce many of the world’s most ageworthy wines.

The Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Himmelreich rise out from the Mosel River in direct view of the winery – majestic, dangerously steep slopes covered with shards of blue-grey Devonian slate. The vineyards are a familiar backdrop to anyone lucky enough to be invited into the estate’s parlour for a tasting (very few outsiders have stepped into the cellars or production areas of J. J. Prüm).

Joh. Jos. Prüm at a glance

Founded 1911 by Johann Josef Prüm following a division of the original S. A. Prüm estate

Co-owners and winemakers Dr. Manfred Prüm (third generation owner) and Dr. Katharina Prüm (fourth generation owner)

Location Village of Wehlen in the Mittelmosel (Middle Mosel)

Production 140,000 bottles

Grape variety Riesling

Area under vine 22ha

Key vineyards Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Graacher Himmelreich, Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, Bernkasteler Badstube

Soil Devonian shale

Of the two sites, Wehlener Sonnenuhr has a slightly more southern exposition and a higher concentration of pure, weathered Devonian slate. Graacher Himmelreich, which borders the southern edge of Wehlenher Sonnenuhr, is slightly less steep in gradient. It’s distinguished from Wehlener Sonnenuhr by pockets of blue slate and a deeper, water-retaining soil structure.

‘Standing in front of the two vineyards, it’s impossible to understand why they taste so different,’ says Katharina. But regardless of vintage or climate variations, distinctions between the two vineyards always shine through.

The wines of Wehlener Sonnenuhr tend towards richness, structure and complexity. ‘Wehlener Sonnenuhr offers more intensity, more stone fruits like white peach,’ says Katharina. Graacher Himmelreich tends towards clarity and focus. ‘The wines are a bit more racy in style,’ she says. ‘They have slightly higher acidity’ and fruit flavours that are brisk and cutting – more green apple or ripe pink grapefruits,’ Katharina suggests.

Wines from Wehlener Sonnenuhr also tend to develop at a more relaxed pace. ‘Graacher Himmelreich jumps at you a bit more quickly,’ says Katharina. ‘It’s charming earlier whereas Wehlener Sonnenuhr starts more slowly. Once it gets going, however, it runs and runs forever. Wehlener Sonnenuhr is the marathon runner of the two.’

An ageless approach to winemaking

In the two decades since Katharina joined her father, much of the estate’s production remains unchanged.

Because phylloxera is deterred by slate soils, roughly 90% of the estate’s vines are ungrafted. Yields are low and weather and climate permitting, the winery harvests late, allowing grapes to ripen over an extended growing period, intensifying in aroma, complexity and expressiveness.

Workers harvest grapes with no mechanical assistance, clinging to ropes as they manoeuvre rocky cliffsides with buckets in hand – one for healthy grapes and one for botrytised grapes. The wines are fermented spontaneously and matured on their lees for extended periods in stainless steel.

Tasted young, they can be nervous and tightly wound with a distinctly reductive sponti (short for spontaneous fermentation) stink. Katharina calls it a ‘wildness’ – a smoky, pungent odour reminiscent of struck matches and slate. It’s a signature of the J. J. Prüm style, a veil of youth that fades with bottle maturation to reveal thrilling complexity and freshness. To the Prüms, it’s an accepted part of an intentionally long evolutionary process.

A goldkapsel or gold capsule, with a single white stripe on the neck of a J. J. Prüm bottle, represents some of the estate’s best auslese bottlings, typically richer, more concentrated wines boosted with botrytised grapes. An auslese with a lange goldkapsel, or long gold capsule, has two white stripes at the bottom to indicate a much higher percentage of botrytis, closer in style to a beerenauslese. Beerenauslese, trockenbeerenauslese and eiswein are always adorned with the lange goldkapsel.

While approachable young, even a basic kabinett from J. J. Prüm can benefit from three to five years of cellar time. Spätlase and auslese may not approach their peak for 20-30 years, and a well-kept beerenauslese or eiswein can be shockingly vibrant for decades longer. Whether young or mature, decanting the wines is often recommended.

Embracing tradition, but always seeking improvement

A large part of J. J. Prüm’s allure is its timelessness. Regardless of vintage variations, their wines are remarkably faithful to a benchmark form that’s immune to fads.

Katharina, however, is emphatic that she’s neither immune to nor resistant to change. ‘For me, tradition means only to keep things that make sense,’ she says. ‘In producing great wines, you constantly have to ask what you can do better, and that was a continual process that my father carried out too.’

Change in climate, for example, has driven an increasing number of adaptations for the winery. Consistently warmer growing seasons prompt grapes to ripen much faster than in the past, shortening the long ripening periods the estate is known for. When Katharina started at the estate, harvest never began before October, she says. Today, the winery often harvests by mid-September.

‘Weather patterns today are much less predictable too,’ she says. Amid extremely dry vintages like 2022, the winery undertakes more green harvesting than ever before, cutting away higher percentages of grape clusters to help drought-afflicted vines restore their balance. It’s a difficult adaptation, Katharina suggests, that further compounds yields that have shifted lower and lower in contemporary vintages.

Subtle shifts in wine style over the last two decades also reflect Katharina’s philosophy when it comes to Prädikatsweine: that each level of ripeness must have a clear and distinct identity.

Today, J. J. Prüm’s kabinetts are most often just a shade off-dry – not legally dry, but much drier than you’ll find with most Mosel estates. Its spätlese is a bit more fruity but never sweet on the finish. And for Katharina, even an auslese is a food wine, she says: ‘Sweetness should never be the main impression for these wines.’ Her oft-repeated message is that at J. J. Prüm, kabinett, spätlese and auslese are all drier than they are sweet in style.

In educating consumers, Katharina steers clear of measurements of residual sugar. In fact, the winery does not publicise any of its analytical data. ‘The key is to find the right balance of sweetness and acidity in the context of every vintage,’ she says, ‘and that’s something we define by tasting, not just analytical data.’

Forever sweet, or rather, not dry

Katharina’s career at the winery began amid a growing shift in German consumer preferences towards dry wines – a Trockenwelle, or dry wave – that catapulted the weight of German wine production from sweet to dry.

It’s a shift that’s also been championed by the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP), the powerful association of Germany’s most prominent estates as they focus efforts on the exclusively dry, super-premium Grosses Gewächs, or GG bottlings.

Despite being a founding member of the VDP, J. J. Prüm produces virtually no dry wines. Its off-dry and sweet Prädikatsweine wear the VDP Grosse Lage designation, reflecting the grand cru status of the vineyards, but the winery produces no GGs.

If a dry wine is made, ‘it’s usually by coincidence – we’ll have a little tank that just fermented super-fast and if it wants to be dry, we just let it,’ says Katharina. The last time she remembers producing dry wine was in 2011, most likely bottled as a kabinett trocken or spätlese trocken.

It’s not that Katharina doesn’t believe the Mosel can produce exceptional dry wines. In fact, she thinks the Mosel’s ability to produce dry wines has only improved as the climate gets warmer. But so many regions in Germany and even more around the world produce fantastic dry wines, she explains.

‘Here in the Mosel, we produce something so rare and unique, something only a few people can produce in the world,’ Katharina says; ‘that’s what our focus is.’

See notes and scores for 10 exquisite Joh. Jos. Prüm Rieslings

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Blink and you could miss it. The village of Graach, or Graach an der Mosel, was first mentioned in historical texts in 975. Home to just over 600 inhabitants, it is a tiny town lying alongside the B53 road as it traces the meanders of the Mittelmosel while you’re making your way north from picturesque Bernkastel town towards the charming hamlet of Zeltingen.

That such a small place could be home to some of the world’s greatest wines and, in fact, one of the finest producers of Riesling on the planet, might be a little surprising. However, if you know anything about these steep Devonian slate slopes and the reputation of Weingut Willi Schaefer, you’ll understand that Graach indeed sits on hallowed ground.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for a selection of Willi Schaefer Rieslings

Christoph Schaefer, along with his wife Andrea, has been at the helm of Willi Schaefer since 2015, taking over from his father Willi. Christoph’s grandparents, Martha and Willibrord Schaefer, founded the winery in its current state after World War II. The family’s viticultural roots, however, go back nearly as far as the town of Graach itself.

There is mention in a document referring to a vineyard changing hands from 1121 of one of the Schaefer family ancestors. Local and historical documents from the region around Graach show evidence of the Schaefer family’s involvement in vineyard work as early as 1590.

When I ask Christoph how long his family has owned and tended their vineyards above the village of Graach, he chuckles. ‘Actually, more or less always,’ he says with a wry smile. And he means it literally.

Those centuries-old beginnings laid the foundation for Christoph’s father Willi, who would take the wines and the global reputation of Weingut Willi Schaefer to the pinnacle of Riesling producers, staking the label’s renown on its kabinett, spätlese and auslese wines – bottled poetry from the steep slate slopes of the Mosel.

A style is born

Willibrord Schaefer (Christoph’s grandfather) had been producing bone-dry Riesling for years when he stumbled onto the style that would become the calling card for his eponymous brand.

Europe experienced a series of extremely cold winters throughout the 1940s. Fermentations of the 1943 vintage Rieslings were not complete, owing to the very cold weather, leaving Schaefer with a cellar full of wines boasting a delicate sweetness. This style became his focus, with the aim being to find a balance between the bright and lively acidity of this region’s terroir and the graceful sweetness of the Riesling planted here when the fruit attains perfect ripeness.

Schaefer’s great growths

The holdings for Weingut Willi Schaefer are tiny. With just 4.5ha, the family is not nearly able to meet the unceasing demands of a world of Riesling lovers enchanted with its wines. Though it does make an effort: Schaefer bottles are available in about 30 countries, in cities from London to Seoul. The Schaefer vines are spread over a number of parcels in three of Mosel’s designated Grosse Lagen – Germany’s equivalent of grand cru vineyard land. ‘Since we’re from Graach, we’re really focused on the vineyards here, mainly the Domprobst and Himmelreich crus,’ says Christoph. ‘So, we’re talking about nearly 4.5ha, but it’s over 40 different parcels.

‘We like to have so many different characteristics over those many sites. We choose to keep those different site expressions in different bottlings of Riesling we’ll produce, which will vary vintage to vintage,’ Christoph explains. ‘In 2022, we made only six “regular” Rieslings, but we can make as many as 16 if the vintage calls for it.’

Schaefer’s Grosse Lagen

Graacher Domprobst

Soil: Devonian blue slate

Slope: 45%-75%

Elevation: 110m-260m

The rich clay soils that underlie the weathered Devonian slate supply this finest of the Graacher crus with more groundwater and tend to create wines of greater power and intensity. The Domprobst wines have tremendous ageability and a distinctive minerality.

Graacher Himmelreich

Soil: Devonian blue slate

Slope: 45%-75%

Elevation: 110m-325m

Based on the soil composition over millions of years of alluvial deposits, the Graach slope has a richer soil bed with greater water retention, which tends to produce wines with more concentration and complexity.

Wehlener Sonnenuhr

Soil: Devonian blue slate

Slope: 65%-70%

Elevation: 110m-320m

Located in the village of Wehlen, the vineyard is named for a sundial built in the 1840s by Joducus Prüm. The site is known for producing wines of freshness, bright fruit and minerality.

Graacher Himmelreich is one of the two Grosse Lage sites associated with the village of Graach. Himmelreich means literally ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and was so named because much of the vineyard land was owned back in the Middle Ages by the Catholic church. Weingut Willi Schaefer has 2ha of vines within this larger Grosse Lage cru.

Half of the estate holdings are located within the Graacher Domprobst Grosse Lage, where the most sought-after Schaefer wines are produced. Domprobst sits in the centre of the Himmelreich cru. Imagine a sort of bullseye. The term Domprobst means ‘Dean of the Cathedral’ (of Trier) – since it was of higher quality, 10% of the fruit from this most prestigious of sites went to the local religious leader.

Wehlener Sonnenuhr is located just downstream from the village of Graach on the Mosel river (in the direction of Zeltingen). The Willi Schaefer estate holdings in Wehlener Sonnenuhr are only 0.25ha.

Elegance & tradition

While a world of wine drinkers has fallen in love with the pinpoint acidities of the fashionable Grosses Gewächs [dry Rieslings from vineyard sites rated as top-quality by Germany’s VDP organisation], the Schaefers continue doing what they always have; making some of the Mosel’s best classic Rieslings. The tradition that Christoph carries on in the cellar is founded on one defining principle: ‘a pursuit of elegance’ is how he puts it.

This has become a challenge in a warming climate. The picking windows have become smaller and the margin for error has increased. ‘In the 1970s, just like the old days, it was simply a matter of waiting for the grapes to ripen. Now you must be ready to go, because if you are even just a few days behind, the grapes won’t give us the wines we intend to make.’

That approach is also a commitment to low-tech winemaking. In the face of global technological advances, the ethic at Weingut Willi Schaefer remains the same as it was in the days of Christoph’s grandfather and of those before him. ‘We don’t measure any data,’ Christoph tells me. ‘We just taste the grapes. You have to trust your tongue. I gauge the ripeness and aromatics through tasting in the vineyard. I taste the grapes again during the pressing and again at fermentation. When the wines taste as though they’re ready, and I like where they are, then I stop the fermentation.’

So the house style at Willi Schaefer is to do as close to nothing to the wine as they possibly can. Every barrel is stopped, Christoph says, ‘when the feeling is that we have a perfect balance of all the components’. And: ‘It’s the purity that allows us to see the terroir with clarity in these wines’. The wines are then racked into stainless steel tanks until bottling, with just a slight filtration beforehand.

‘In general we don’t use many techniques,’ says Christoph. ‘We focus on harvest strategy and we follow that closely. If we make the right selections and decisions in the vineyard, then we don’t have to worry about what happens in the cellar.’

Let the terroir talk

The Schaefer approach is refreshing in its simplicity. The cellar sits below Christoph and Andrea’s family home, built by his grandfather in the 1950s. They use only the gentlest pressing of the grapes and all fermentations are spontaneous and very slow. The wines ferment in old, 1,000-litre German fuders, some of them dating back to the 1950s.

They are driven by an obsessive respect for the terroir that has supported this family for centuries. They take what the vintage gives them. ‘If we don’t have the grapes for a particular wine, we simply don’t make that wine in a given vintage,’ Christoph tells me.

Their commitment has won them a cult-like following among Riesling devotees, driven by their purity of approach and strong commitment to tradition, one that feels so fleeting in our rapidly changing world.

Willi Schaefer: Top-flight Rieslings in high demand

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Almost 100 people were seated in a spacious hall and there was a great deal of silence. This is what one normally knows from opera and theatre, but for the past 20 years also from the annual tasting of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) in the Kurhaus Kolonnaden, in front of the casino in the city of Wiesbaden.

From morning to night, hardly anything can be heard. At most, a slight gurgling and discreet spitting, which is quite socially acceptable at wine tastings, and the quiet footsteps of around 50 service staff.

Scroll down for notes and scores for 30 latest release Grosse Gewächs

Their performance is indeed somewhat reminiscent of a ballet; in a flowing rhythm, they carry in crates of wine bottles, spreading silently across the rows and pouring for the experts. Each of these crates contains a ‘flight’ of up to six wines, the bottles arranged according to grape variety and origin. There are 83 flights to taste during the three days in Wiesbaden, 460 wines in total.

The annual gathering

These are exclusively Grosse Gewächs (GG) or ‘grand cru’ wines, meaning the top dry wines produced by the VDP, the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates members.

These 201-strong members of VDP represent some of Germany’s top wineries, and they have agreed to follow strict quality criteria for their GGs, such as reduced yields and manual harvesting for grapes from only the best vineyards, which are classified as Grosse Lagen.

The white wines may only be brought to the market in and after September of the year following the harvest, and the reds two years later. Many things can be regulated in the statutes of the VDP, but vintage conditions cannot.

Backs against the wall for 2021 reds

Most of the red wines presented come from 2021, a cool and wet vintage hard to forget so quickly. The vintners in the Ahr valley remember the worst of it: on 14 July 2021, the otherwise harmless Ahr river turned into a raging torrent. Entire wineries were swept away, and the vineyards in the valley and on the valley edge were destroyed.

Vineyards which were not affected on the steep slopes above were subsequently attacked by downy mildew, a fungal disease. Therefore, those local winegrowers who have made the best out of the natural circumstances deserve more respect and recognition.

The best winemakers have adapted to dealing with changeable nature. Andi Rings from Freinsheim in the Palatinate, for example, reveals his paper clip trick: he and his team used an unbent paper clip when working in the vineyard to pick out individual berries from whole bunches that were affected by downy mildew. The entire harvest was pre-sorted again by 15 people, late into the night, on a new, illuminated table.

The vineyards of Julian Huber from the Bernhard Huber winery in Malterdingen also suffered in 2021: frost in the spring, then extreme pressure from downy mildew and finally the arrival of vinegar flies. Biological treatments were only marginally effective, as a result, a good 70% of the grapes were lost.

For the first time since its debut 2004 vintage, Huber did not produce his top wine, the Wildenstein, which is the oldest Spätburgunder (aka Pinot Noir) parcel within the Bienenberg site. Grapes harvested from the Wildenstein plot in 2021 were used for the Bienenberg cuvée.

Huber was also extremely careful in the cellar: ‘The grape skins were harder than usual, the tannins more compact,’ he recalls. He did not put whole clusters (with stems) into fermentation this time, and only gently punched down the skins in the must towards the end of fermentation, so as not to leach out too much of it, and then pressed the wine early. The hard work paid off, as his 2021 Pinot Noir from the Bienenberg proves.

2022 whites seek shade

The difficult 2021 vintage was followed by 2022, quite different and yet just as difficult. It was dry and very warm, on some days extremely hot. Klaus-Peter Keller and his son Felix have been relying on shading in Rheinhessen for a long time, and will be even more so in the future. They plant up to 20,000 vines per hectare for their white and red varieties – the usual number is 4,000 to 5,000, in order to fit a tractor within the wide rows.

At 20,000, pure manual labour is the order of the day, which makes the work – and later the wine – more expensive. But for that, the roots have no choice but to sprout deep down due to lack of space and nutrition. ‘That gives more skin, but less juice; it really packs a punch,’ said Klaus-Peter.

In addition, the vines’ tall foliage walls provide shade and, in less densely stocked plants, Keller no longer cuts the tips of the shoots but just wraps them around the wires – not only does this technique provide more shade, it can lead to a looser bunch structure with smaller, more concentrated berries that stay healthy longer; certainly, Keller Rieslings from Morstein and Abtserde are top class.

The couple Hans-Oliver Spanier from the Battenfeld Spanier winery and Carolin Kühling-Gillot from Rheinhessen also look back on the warm year of 2022 with satisfaction.

They had 8,000 bales of straw spread in the vineyards to protect the soil from the burning sun. ‘Under the straw, it was 30 degrees cooler,’ said Spanier. His 2022 Riesling from the Zellerweg at Schwarzer Herrgott is one of the vintage’s best.

The difference between 2022 and the equally warm years of 2018, 2019 and 2020 were the nights, said Tim Fröhlich of the Schäfer-Fröhlich winery in Nahe: they were cool, so the acidity remained in the grapes. And then there was also luck: ‘We had a light thundershower at the right time, which was a blessing,’ he says. With rainwater as fuel, the grapes gained another 10 to 15 Oechsle degrees of sugar by the time of harvest.

Michael Gutzler in Rheinhessen also seems to have benefited from this. His 2022 Riesling from the Liebfrauenstift Kirchenstück site convinces with its beautiful balance and above all with its price; compared to its peers, the wine is a real bargain.

And what are the prospects for 2023? A happy ending is still a long time coming, but Klaus-Peter Keller sends a message from the vineyard: ‘First very dry and warm, then damp and cool in August, and now beautiful again.’ That gives us hope.

See notes and scores for 30 latest release Grosse Gewächs

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Gerhard Bauer, 73, faces up to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a mail fraud scheme, which saw him steal from his employer.

Bauer was the CEO and president of the unnamed international company’s US subsidiary, and his activities raised suspicion.

Prosecutors said that he created fake invoices and wrote company cheques in order to steal the funds. Investigators spoke to the company’s current CEO, who said that the business ‘would not purchase any of these items or services in its ordinary course of business’.

The US Attorney’s Office revealed that Bauer used almost $1.5m in embezzled funds to build Otium Cellars and Goose Creek Farms in Purcellville, Virginia.

According to the court statement of facts, Bauer also used the company’s money to buy hundreds of bottles for his winery in 2017.

He used $357,683 to pay off his credit card debt, according to the affidavit, and he also spent $146,416 on a relative’s private school tuition at the exclusive Foxcroft School in Virginia.

The farm was set up to raise and sell Hanoverians, a horse breed of German origin. Otium Cellars was sold in 2021.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the US Secret Service’s Washington Field Office helped with the investigation.

Bauer was arrested and charged with mail fraud. US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted his guilty plea.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in November. Bauer faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, but actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.

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Caro Maurer MW, Mark Dearing and Stefan Neumann tasted 74 wines with 8 Outstanding and 31 Highly recommended.

German dry Riesling: Panel tasting scores

74 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 8

Highly recommended 31

Recommended 26

Commended 8

Fair 1

Poor 0

Entry criteria: producer-members of the VDP organisation and UK agents were invited to submit their latest-release, dry Grosses Gewächs Riesling wines from any German region.

Riesling acts as a kind of medium: a mediator between origin and grape variety. In the best examples, the delicate Riesling aromas bear witness to the terroir within which each wine is produced – and also to the vintage, as was shown in this panel tasting, which featured a constellation of Grosses Gewächs (‘GG’) Riesling wines of varying styles.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the German dry Riesling panel tasting

The GGs are the German equivalents of ‘grand cru’ wines – exclusively dry wines [including grape varieties other than Riesling, though the majority are Rieslings] from the most-highly classified sites of the members of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) – an independent organisation of some 200 of Germany’s very best wineries united under a single banner.With respect to the vintages, 2018 was very warm, 2019 and 2020 were warm and dry, while 2021 was cool and damp. The differences were apparent in these single-site Rieslings, as the leading winemakers were able to bring out the determining factors of vintage with precision and finesse, while others seemed to cope less well with the natural circumstances.

Accordingly, the quality of these GG samples also ranges from just-acceptable to top-class with high ageing potential. In the best Rieslings, 2021 expresses itself with pronounced acidity, ravishing freshness and unleashed vivacity, while the authoritative wines from 2020 and 2019 focus more on accessibility, high concentration and density. 2018 already shows harmony and integration of all components that one can expect from a five-year-old Riesling.

The majority of the samples were from the 2021 vintage, the best among them excelling with fascinating tension, but also hearty accessibility, as agreed by all three tasters. Decisive advantages included, for Mark Dearing, the mineral profile, while for Stefan Neumann MS it was their potential for ageing. Some 2021 wines, said Dearing, may seem a bit shy at the beginning, and these need time to open up, but for him these are the long-runners. Neumann was particularly impressed by the 2021 wines from Rheinhessen and the Nahe: ‘It was a pleasure to experience them in the glass now: so lively, so fresh, so elegant. Everything already seemed in the right place. The only thing that is still missing, unfortunately, no one can buy: that is time.’ Indeed, the 2021s need the time to grow to their full potential.

There was unanimity among the judges in saying that Rheinhessen and Nahe stood out as the strongest regions in the tasting overall, while the weakest wines came from Baden-Württemberg, with samples being rather ‘simple’ and thus less exciting, according to Dearing. Neumann was also disappointed that the Rheingau, otherwise a dominant Riesling stronghold, did poorly with the 2021 vintage here. In Baden, the Pinot varieties, rather than Riesling, are the top stars, said Neumann: ‘If you want to drink Riesling in the south, it’s best to cross the Rhine towards Alsace.’

See all the German dry Riesling wines from the panel tasting

The tasters were untroubled by the fact that wine styles varied from very classic to modern reductive. As Dearing put it: ‘This is the strength of Riesling, that it is not the style of the winemaker that shapes it, but its origin.’ And that is exactly what the wines that achieved 95 points or above show. They come from different regions, and from different soils – what they have in common is their vitality and energy. Neumann agreed: ‘Why do we love Riesling so much? Every wine tells a different story, namely that of its homeland.’

German dry Riesling panel tasting scores

The judges

Caro Maurer MW is a German wine writer and WSET- and MW-level educator. A DWWA Regional Chair, she also contributes to Bonn’s daily newspaper General-Anzeiger and food and wine magazine Der Feinschmecker.

Mark Dearing is a wine buyer for London-based merchant and importer Justerini & Brooks, where his responsibilities include Germany as well as several other major wine nations and regions.

Stefann Neumann is an independent Master Sommelier who runs his own wine consultancy. A DWWA Regional Chair, he has many years of experience working in the world of Michelin-starred restaurants, and in 2023 launched an online blind tasting course to help students pass their wine exams.

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The Germans have consistently held the global top spot in guzzling bubbles (OIV, April 2020): the per capita consumption in 2021 was 3.2 litres of fizz (Statista Research Department, April 2022) which means more than four bottles or 32 flutes per adult of Champagne, Prosecco, Cava and other sparkling wines – and Sekt of course, the surprisingly pronounceable and simple term for German sparkling wine.

Two kinds of Sekt

But caveat emptor: the term Sekt covers everything from the simplest tank-fermented plonk to long-aged, bottle-fermented sparkling wines. It is the former that explains that world-beating consumption figure. Cracking open a bottle of Sekt is seen as a simple and affordable treat in Germany, where a 750ml bottle can be had for as little as €5. Enjoying a glass is the equivalent of eating a square of chocolate or a biscuit. Thus the vast majority of Sekt is made from pan-European wines rail-freighted to a few giant wineries that turn these simple base wines into easy-drinking fizz in giant tanks and market them under long-established brand names.

The real thing and how to recognise it

What we are after, however, is the real thing: bottle-fermented Sekt, i.e. made by the traditional method – either klassische or Traditionelle Flaschengärung (‘traditional bottle fermented’) in German.

According to the Association of German Sektkellereien, the proportion of traditional-method Sekt is just 1.7% of Germany’s total sparkling production (Verband Deutsche Sektkellereien, January 2022), so the terminology found on labels is key to recognising bottles. The word Flaschengärung is absolutely crucial since most of the wines tasted here would fit into higher categories that exist in German wine law but do not explicitly state this. Here is some useful terminology:

• Sekt b.A. (Sekt bestimmter Anbaugebiete) – Must be made from German grapes grown in one of Germany’s 13 wine regions but can be made by tank or bottle fermentation.
• Winzersekt – must be Sekt b.A, made from estate-grown grapes and bottle-fermented. It must state grape variety and vintage on the label (and at least 85% of grapes must be from the stated variety and vintage).
• Crémant – must be Sekt b.A., must be hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed with a maximum yield of 100 litres of juice from 150kg of grapes, must be traditional method and aged at least nine months on the lees. Yes, the Germans have appropriated a French term here – but it is rarely used.

Because this is Germany, there is always an extra layer of regulation, in this case, self-imposed by the VDP, Germany’s association of elite estates, who introduced their first Sekt statute in 2018. All VDP Sekt conforms to the regulations for Winzersekt (‘sparkling wine’), but underlies more stringent yield restrictions. It can only be made from regionally defined grape varieties, hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed with extra statutes on press fractions. It is ageing that defines the individual categories:

• VDP.Sekt – min. 15 months ageing on the lees
• VDP.Jahrgangssekt (with a stated vintage) – min. 24 months ageing on the lees
• VDP.Sekt Prestige – min. 36 months on the lees

Sekt success at home and abroad

While bottle-fermented Sekts are still a drop in the ocean of Germany’s gigantic output of fizz, fine Sekt has been a success story domestically and – increasingly – also abroad, even though the finest Sekts rarely travel outside Germany. Christoph Graf who is both chairman of the board of Sektmanufaktur Schloss VAUX in the Rheingau as well as chairman of the Verband Traditioneller Sektmacher, an association of bottle-fermenters, says, ‘The past five years have been a renaissance for all premium sparkling wines and Sekt from Germany. I see two reasons for this: consumers became much more knowledgeable when it came to sparkling wines from across the world. With this new expertise, different and unique styles and origins became much more interesting. This curiosity is good for the little niche of fine German Sekts.’

But he also notes that it was not only consumers’ expertise that grew. Sparkling wine producers also upped their game considerably. ‘I’m very optimistic for export markets,’ he adds.

The unique sparkler: German Rieslingsekt

The German Wine Institute reports that the regions of Baden, Pfalz and Mosel produced most Sekt b.A. in 2021, and while 23% were made from single varieties of Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, a whopping 41% of Sekt b.A. were made from Riesling. Rieslingsekt is a real ‘unique selling point’ for Germany; it has a different flavour profile compared to sparkling wines made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Riesling’s high acidity and semi-aromatic profile result in very bright, fresh wines with alluring notes of citrus augmented by notions of stone fruit and apple fruitiness.

Those who are wary of Riesling’s petrol notes have nothing to fear from the Rieslingsekts in this selection. They are merely supercharged on citrus and fruit. The Pinot Noir-based Sekts are also totally worth looking out for – all from great names.

German Sekt: Wines to try

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It is 20 years since the Grosse Gewächs (GG) made its first public appearance. In September 2002, the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates (VDP) presented its new wine category in Berlin: great dry wines from the best classified vineyards. That year, 78 wineries showed wines from around 100 sites.

With the Grosses Gewächs, the association’s approximately 200 members rejected the bureaucracy of the 1971 German wine law, which still evaluates a wine’s quality exclusively according to grape sugar content at harvest.

Scroll down for tasting notes & scores for the German Grosses Gewächs 2022 releases

The VDP, however, believes that the origin counts as well, not just ripeness. ‘Only a vine growing in harmony with its vineyard can produce grapes for truly great, distinctive wines that tangibly reflect their soil and climate,’ says Steffen Christmann, president of the association.

The new vintage has been released every 1 September since then, with the whites usually from the previous year and the reds at least two years old.

This September saw a total of 629 new Grosse Gewächse from 327 classified sites. The white wines, predominantly from the 2021 vintage, were almost a throwback to cooler times: with pronounced acidity and ravishing freshness. The 2020 reds, coming from a very warm vintage, showed just the opposite, expressed as high concentration and density.

2021 whites: a look back at cooler times

Sunny days were the exception in 2021, with warm and humid weather causing problems for winegrowers and promoting fungal diseases. Organic producers could only treat vines against downy mildew with copper and net sulphur, meaning they sometimes had to spray twice as often. Yet, says Frank Schönleber from Emrich-Schönleber (Nahe), he had to accept lower quantities. The subsequent harvest was precision work, with those who had already carefully pre-sorted in the vineyard being able to present brilliantly pure, classic wines, such as Schönleber’s ‘Auf der Ley’ Riesling.

Those sites that had suffered in the previous three warm vintages triumphed in 2021. The Rote Hang between Nierstein and Nackenheim in Rheinhessen had struggled with the recent hot temperatures due to its direct proximity to the Rhine; however, examples like Kühling-Gillot’s 2021 Pettenthal Riesling is showcasing delicacy and finesse. ‘Full ripeness with low sugar levels and crisp acidity,’ as owner Carolin Spanier described the year’s harvest.

Nahe producer Helmut Dönnhoff is also very pleased with their 2021 Rieslings. ‘In recent years, the grapes’ sugar had increased faster than physiological ripeness, while this time, sugar ripening was much slower.’ At Dönnhoff, the harvest lasted into November. Those able to balance the acidity in their wines with density and concentration, like brothers Oliver Haag (Fritz Haag Winery) and Thomas Haag (Schloss Lieser) in the Mosel, were the winners.

The region also produced many thin, tart examples in this vintage. Yet, the Mosel has a locational advantage for residual sugar and 2021 was an ideal year for the increasingly rare Kabinett wines – a style usually features about 8.5 percent abv and 35-50 grams of residual sugar.

In a difficult vintage like 2021, you can usually rely on familiar names. Among the Pinot Gris, the Henkenberg from Salwey (Baden) shone as usual. The Chardonnays from Baden winery Huber are always unbeatable, while Dr. Heger’s Pinot Blanc ‘Hinter Winklen Gras im Ofen’ (Baden) counts among the best.

2020 reds: rethinking viticulture

In contrast to 2021, 2020 was very warm and characterised by drought. This meant rethinking vineyard work; shading the grapes instead of defoliation and rolling the greenery rather than mowing it, thus helping preserve moisture in the soil.

Rheinhessen winemaker Klaus-Peter Keller says his vineyards sometimes resembled ‘a jungle’, ‘we let the wall of foliage grow until the canes bent over and covered the fruiting zone like a curtain.’

In vinification, whole clusters and open vat fermentation helped lower the alcohol levels slightly. Thus, his Morstein Felix Pinot Noir shows two faces: one highly concentrated and the other of dancing lightness.

Sebastian Fürst from the Rudolf Fürst winery in Centgrafenberg (Franconia / Franken) was equally successful. The Rings brothers (Palatinate / Pfalz) once again produced a convincing wine from the Saumagen site. And a discovery among the reds: Pfalz winemaker Steffen Christmann’s Pinot Noir from top vineyard Idig proves that he can also make great Pinot Noir, not just Riesling.

The unexpected

In Württemberg, the focus is almost always on Lemberger, but this time, Aldinger delivered the collection of the year. The Riesling and Pinot Blanc from the Gips Marienglas vineyard were just as impressive as the Pinot Noir and the, still reserved, Lemberger from the Lämmler.

A new name (and still a real bargain) appeared on my list of favourite GGs: the intense, modern-style Hundertgulden Riesling from Bischel. However, eternally beautiful classics, such as the reliable, serious, uninhibited great wines from Graf Neipperg (Württemberg) and Müller-Catoir (Pfalz), should not be overlooked either.

The 2021 Ahr flood washed away some vintners’ 2020 vintage barrels. Adeneuer was one of the few who could present a GG this year. Stodden, otherwise one of the front runners, had marked his GG barrels resting in the cellar with chalk. The flood erased the markings, but Alexander Stodden created the 2020 ‘Alexander Die Grossen’ from various barrels. It is not officially a GG but is nevertheless a great wine – a rarity and a record of contemporary history.

The results

2021 produced ‘retro’ Rieslings, whose fresh, striking acidity is reminiscent of the cool years of past decades. They thus have the potential to age.

The 2020 reds are hedonistic, powerful and expressive, already ripe for early consumption. Indeed, where is it written that red wines must always be made for the next generation to inherit?

Caro Maurer MW’s top white and red picks from the Grosses Gewächs 2022 releases

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The year is 911. Charlemagne’s grandson, King Louis ‘The Child’ of East Francia dies aged 17 after an 11-year reign and becomes the last ruler of the East Frankish Carolingian Dynasty.

Elsewhere, in what will become known as the Kingdom of Germany, Schoenberg Castle located on a small hill in the medieval town of Oberwesel, overlooking the meandering banks of the River Rhein, is first mentioned in written sources.

Much has happened since then. Family squabbles and tribal warfare meant the castle frequently changed hands, and has even been burnt down and rebuilt.

Today there may no longer be royalty fighting over its ownership, but a stay in one of the castle’s 27 rooms will make you feel like an aristocrat.

Living like a king

The external walls of the castle are made from the same slate that gives the wines of Germany’s Mittelrhein region their distinct minerality and structure. Stepping into the castle and back in time, the hotel is decorated with a firm nod to 15th century interiors. Dark wood panelling, hanging tapestries and leaded glass windows are sympathetically used to create a charming and welcoming pastiche.

The bedrooms, each with their own names such as ‘Pfalzgrafenkemenate’ (kemenate translating to a room with a fireplace or a woman’s private room), are individually furnished but follow the same unifying theme. From cosy, dedicated single-person rooms, to suites with four-poster beds, en suite saunas and private balconies.

Wine time

Venture outside and it’s clear that wine is, and has always been, at the heart of Oberwesel. It was the wine trade that brought wealth to the region from the 13th to the 15th century, allowing the town wall to be built. That wall still stands largely intact today: visitors can walk along it and see inside the fortified towers.

Riesling reigns here, with around 70% of the region’s vineyards planted with it. So it’s only right to try to understand the local’s love for it. The hotel offers private tours where you are met at the castle doors by a winemaker and whisked away for two hours. Your tour will take in the town, vineyards, views and of course end with a wine tasting. (€65 per person).

If you prefer something a little more lively, then one of the many wine festivals should be part of your schedule. Germany has over 1,000 wine festivals annually and the Mittelrhein is no exception for celebrating all things vinous.

When to visit

Plan your visit to include a trip to the Christmas market or to the springtime Mittelrheinischer Weinfrühling. This 5km route starts in Boppard (13 minutes away from Oberwesel by train) and travels through 16 ‘stations’ celebrating the new vintage release, coinciding with Rhein in Flammen. As the name suggests, the river is lit up by firework displays taking place in five locations along the Rhein with wine festivals happening bankside.

Then there is the most unique event of all, one that only happens in Oberwesel: Weinhexennacht (wine witch night) on 30 April. The event traces its history back to a time when witches’ fires were lit in the vineyards to drive out winter demons. These days a local woman is chosen to represent the town and its wines, with her inauguration consisting of her climbing out of a big wine barrel in the market square.

Food and drink

Even if your trip doesn’t coincide with a festival you can still experience the best of the region by looking out for Haus der besten Schoppen Mittelrhein. These restaurants, inns and taverns have been judged to serve excellent local food and drink.

And of course you can plan your own visits to wineries in the region. Suggestions include Weingut Ratzenberger and Weingut Toni Jost, both members of the VDP Mittelrhein. Or drop into Weingut Albert Lambrich, the family winery of the current wine witch Julia Lambrich.

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Recently moving to Michelin Bib Gourmand Barra from one Michelin star Nobelhart & Schmutzig is restaurant manager and sommelier Andy Benn. Barra focuses on seasonal shared plates and low-invention wines.

‘I’d say that half our clientele are German and the rest are made up of tourists and expats. We have around 80 wines on the list which is European focused, but not just the classic regions – we have a fair bit from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Greece and Austria.

‘We update it every day as we have a small space, meaning we can buy in those harder-to-find gems that are only produced in small quantities. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, but for our customers there never seem to be enough wines from the Jura or skin-contact wines from Slovenia and Friuli.

‘At home, I’m a stickler for “Gang of Four” Beaujolais, especially Foillard and Lapierre.’

Top Tip:

‘Tannic orange wines with smoky food. We recently had smoked eel on the menu and I kept coming back to the pairing again and again. Really intense flavours smashing into each other, somehow works.’

Anecdote:

‘During a harvest a few years ago, I was unloading vans filled with grapes stacked in red crates. Village grapes were offloaded first and emptied into the village tanks, while the premier crus were last off and crates marked with an X. As we were coming to offload the premier crus on one van, I thought it would be funny to joke that I couldn’t see any Xs on the remaining boxes, hinting that we’d chucked all the premier cru grapes into the village tank. One of the owners burst into tears and there was some screaming. I had to backtrack and show them all the boxes with the Xs on them. I’ve not been invited back.’

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The terroir-driven, expressive and mouthwatering nature of Riesling make this grape variety a common favourite among wine experts.

Precise, with a breadth of quality and style, Riesling wines continue to excite the Decanter World Wine Awards judges, and not just those from classic regions such as Germany’s Mosel or Wachau in Austria.

Scroll down to see the top-scoring Riesling wines from DWWA 2021

At the 2021 competition, top results ranged from San Antonio in Chile to Moravia, Czech Republic. And, with Gold medal winners retasted a minimum of three times – the Platinum & 50 Best in Show even more – results from DWWA offer a definitive guide to outstanding quality across the globe.

While great Riesling styles range from sparkling to sweet, find here a selection of the top-scoring dry to medium-dry Riesling wines awarded across eight countries, with some delicious surprises to be discovered.

A global discovery of Riesling with 15 top-scoring wines

Australia

Gatt, Single Vineyard, High Eden, Eden Valley, South Australia 2013

96 Gold

gattwines.com

Inviting citrus, toast and herbal aromatics. Concentrated fresh citrus and golden fruit on the palate, juicy and mouthwatering. Very concentrated, moreish and long. Lovely wine. Alcohol 12%

Kilikanoon, Mort’s Reserve Watervale, Clare Valley, South Australia 2018

96 Gold

£38 Via UK agent Mentzendorff

Sleek, extremely long and super-fine, displaying incredible poise, with fresh lemon juice, white blossom, ripe peach and bay leaf, some mature lime marmalade and toast tones sneaking in. Alc 12.5%

Capel Vale, Single Vineyard Whispering Hill, Mount Barker, Western Australia 2020

94 Silver

capelvale.com.au

Fine, long, controlled and flowing, with brisk lime cordial, jasmine florals and stone fruit playing against subtle yeasty notes. Alc 12%

Austria

Allram, Ried Heiligenstein 1ÖTW, Kamptal 2019

94 Silver

US$ 35.99 K&L Wine Merchants

Subtle nose, lemon pith and grapefruit rind, stony and mushroom nose. Dry and complex, cool with purity and a persistent finish. Alc 13.5%

Canada

Peller Estates, Andrew Peller Signature Series, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario 2019

97 Platinum

peller.com

Charming, with enticing acidity, succulent beeswax, and a luscious lime Margarita finish. Bold and beguiling, with classic Riesling characteristics, it drinks beautifully now and will enchant for years to come. Alc 10.1%

Trius, Showcase Ghost Creek, Four Mile Creek, Ontario 2019

95 Gold

triuswines.com

Charmingly crystalline, with vibrant zesty notes and bright, refreshing minerality. Oolong tea and lime pith mingle with mouth-tingling spearmint,

in a mesmerising menthol finish. Alc 9.9%

Chile

Casa Marin, Cartagena, Lo Abarca, San Antonio 2020

97 Platinum

casamarin.cl

Classic limey character with elegant petrol notes and lovely crunchy green apples. Succulent on the palate with lively acidity, very bright and aromatic. Lovely purity and drive. Alc 12%

Czech Republic

Chateau Bzenec, Ryzlink Rýnský, Bzenecká, Moravia 2017

95 Gold

chateaubzenec.cz

Classy, elegant nose that displays complex notes of white stone fruit, orange blossom and petrol evolution. Delicate fruit on the palate, showing a

charming character, precise. Alc 12.5%

France

Cave Vinicole deHunawihr, Grand Cru Rosacker, Alsace 2020

97 Platinum

£22.99 NY Wines, Wineye

An exotic wine that’s full of flavour and character. Well made with exotic expressions of pineapple and smoky saffron, and a delicious gingery finish. Alc 13%

Germany

Schloss Johannisberg, Silberlack Grosses Gewächs, Rheingau 2019

97 Platinum

£32 (ib)-£60.95 23 Wine & Whiskey, Bordeaux Index, Cru Wine, Jascots, Renaissance Vintners, Slurp

Perfumed nose of lemon and lime zest with briny and savoury notes, ripe stone fruit undertones. Quite intense yet well balanced. Harmonious, with a long, pure, intense finish. Alc 13%

Von Winning, Pechstein Grosses Gewächs, Pfalz 2019

97 Platinum

US$120-$150 LouElla, Point de Chêne, Rye Brook, Sage Society, Zachys

Rich, formidable, toasty nose displaying aromas of ripe apple and apricot with subtle oak touches. Crisp and juicy with a fabulous concentration on the palate. Refreshing finish with an impressive length. Alc 13%

August Eser, Doosberg Grosses Gewächs, Rheingau 2019

96 Gold

eser-wein.shop

Lively nose of lime zest, ripe stone fruit and grapefruit with leesy and cracked stone undertones. Dry and crisp, mouthfilling and packed with flavour,

long. Alc 12.5%

Staatlicher Hofkeller Würzburg, Würzburger Stein Grosses Gewächs, Franken 2019

95 Gold

hofkeller.de

Intense and expressive citrussy nose with saline notes and some earthy quality. Rich and assertive, a wine of power and density with a long, zesty finish. Alc 13.5%

Italy

Falkenstein, Val Venosta, Trentino-Alto Adige 2019

95 Gold

£24.75 Dolce Vita Wine Club

Plush aromatics of candied fruit, peach, nut and lifted floral notes, then a palate of poised acidity, lime marmalade, orange blossom and pink grapefruit. Alc 13%

Abbazia di Novacella, Praepositus, Valle Isarco, Trentino-Alto Adige 2018

94 Silver

£33.50 Amathus Drinks

Has an elegant nose of quince, white grapefruit, white flower and lemon zest, while the palate is graced with notes of pink grapefruit and zesty white

peach. Alc 13.5%

Search more DWWA medal winners

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Spätburgunder is the German name for Pinot Noir, and means literally ‘late Burgundy’, in reference to its ripening time and origin. It is possible that the variety first arrived in Germany as early as the ninth century. An often-cited story recounts how Charlemagne [d. 814 AD] ordered monks to plant a vineyard in the Rheingau, on a hill below what is now known as Schloss Johannisberg. It may well be Pinot Noir that they planted, as wild Pinot grapes have been found growing on a nearby island in the Rhine.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 fantastic Spätburgunders

As Benjamin Lewin MW points out in his comprehensive study In Search of Pinot Noir (Vendange, 2011), there is more evidence suggesting that the Cistercian monks later planted black grapes at the nearby Kloster Eberbach, which was founded in 1136, although there is no proof that these vines were Pinot Noir. According to the German Wine Institute (DWI), the first clear written reference to Klebrot – an early name for Pinot Noir – is said to have been made locally in 1470.

Pinot Noir later became a common variety in the Rheingau, where 390ha of 3,200ha (DWI, 2020) are still planted with this grape, mainly in the northwestern corner around the town of Assmannshausen. The steep Höllenberg (‘Hell’s Mountain’) of the village has been a source of great Spätburgunder through the ages, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when its Pinots rivalled those of Burgundy.

In the 16th century, Spätburgunder was mentioned in the Ahr valley as ‘Bleichert’, which means ‘pale’, indicating the colour of the wine. Spätburgunder became the star in the protected microclimate and Devonian slate soil of this northern tributary of the Rhine, producing wines that are fresh yet powerful at the same time. It is now the dominant variety there, covering 65% of all vineyard areas along the Ahr.

Even the Mosel has a history of planting Spätburgunder. In the 19th century, it was cultivated and sold as Roter Burgunder (‘red Burgundy’). But as Riesling commanded higher prices, the Nazis prohibited the planting of black varieties in 1933, under a law that stayed in force until 1987.

Today, Baden is Germany’s Spätburgunder paradise, with the grape occupying 5,260ha of its 15,812ha. There is a natural alliance between the warmer climate of the southern region of Baden and some of its soils: calcareous in Breisgau, for example, and volcanic at the Kaiserstuhl.

Although the planting of black grapes only accounted for 11.4% of Germany’s total plantings in 1980, it saw a significant rise throughout the following two decades. Hence, by 2006, black grapes accounted for a 36.9% share of all vineyards in the country. However, in a move to consolidate and augment the uniqueness of Riesling, plantings of black grapes have now fallen to 32.7%.

Spätburgunder is at home in every single one of Germany’s 13 quality wine regions, totalling 11,660ha across the country. This puts Germany in third place for Pinot plantings around the world, behind only France with about 32,000ha, and the US with 25,000ha.

Climate: Risk & opportunity

If you look at the river Ahr now, it seems quite harmless, only a few metres wide and flowing along its bed of stone and gravel. On the outskirts of Dernau, the river flows behind an inconspicuous hall, which has housed the winery of Julia Bertram and Benedikt Baltes since last September. Two months earlier, their winery stood a few kilometres upstream in Rech. But that no longer exists, thanks to the devastating flood of the river Ahr on 14 July 2021.

The new site was fitted out for vinification in just six weeks, just in time for the start of harvest, says winemaker Baltes. He found a second-hand press and destemmer in France, while the tanks and barrels were donated by friendly wineries from all over Germany. Only two of their own barrels were spared.

The measuring stations in the Ahr valley were not prepared for a flood of such magnitude, so they only had estimates of just how high the floodwater rose that Wednesday night. In places, the flood was said to have poured through the narrow, winding valley at a height of between seven and 10 metres, sweeping away everything in its path.

Was the flood a result of climate change? That is difficult to assess. But it has certainly shaken things up. Wine-growers in the Ahr and other regions are painfully aware of the changes in the past few decades: temperatures have risen by as much as 2°C, and extreme weather events are increasingly destructive, bringing hail, heavy rain and floods. As a result, sustainability has become the predominant theme for many winemakers. German Spätburgunders are increasingly about naturalness and purity. Less is more – in both viticulture and vinification.

Moreover, although Germany falls in the coolest European climate zone for viticulture, the country experienced a series of hot vintages in 2018, 2019 and 2020, which has brought the cooler Mosel, viewed as a Riesling stronghold, into focus for the production of Spätburgunder.

These hot vintages have also led to ripeness and improvement in the quality of entry-level wines. If you don’t want to open a Grosses Gewächs-level wine [a designation that’s similar to grand cru] every day, you can now find excellent examples even in the simple Gutswein category.

Sustainability drive

The Ahr is only a small wine-producing region, comprising 563ha of Germany’s total 103,000ha. It is considered the northernmost red wine-dominated region in the world. At Weingut Bertram-Baltes, Spätburgunder accounts for nearly 100% of its 7.5ha. Anyone who has had the good fortune to taste Bertram-Baltes’ wines from the 2018 vintage knows the radiance they exude.

With his surviving vineyards, Baltes is now focusing on the self-healing power of nature, and he is even going one step beyond just working biodynamically in search of this, as he is converting his vineyards, bit by bit, to permaculture. This is a special form of sustainable viticulture that imitates the natural cycle of nature. Not only are chemical agents banned, but the trellis posts are also only made of untreated acacia wood, and the cordon [main horizontal arm of the vine] is trained to a height of 1.4m.

Underneath, small sheep graze on weeds and eat the vine’s excess shoots, but they cannot reach the sweet fruit. This long distance from the ground also helps prevent fungal diseases such as peronospora, which can be transmitted by water splashing. In the early growth phase, the vines remain completely untreated to promote and strengthen their natural defences.

Can such prudent measures be tasted? They certainly contribute to the powerful character of Baltes’ Mayschosser Mönchberg 2019, which reflects the barren slate soil of the steep mountain more than it does the grape variety. Smokiness settles over the black cherry fruit, while the tannins are fine, almost delicate. It is a modern, very purist style.

A similar effect can be seen in the wines of Steffen and Andreas Rings. The two brothers have built their new winery virtually in the middle of the vineyard, outside the town of Freinsheim in the Rhineland-Palatinate (Pfalz). Their goal is CO2 neutrality. Almost half of the 2,000m2 winery protrudes into the vineyard, covered with earth and planted with vegetation, thereby providing natural insulation. The floor for barrel storage is kept bare, allowing natural humidity to rise, and the new barrels there are reserved for entry-level wines. The wines from top vineyards Saumagen and Felsenberg are mainly aged in one-year-old barriques, where they are meant to rest and breathe, nothing more.

‘Our wines need more time today,’ says Andreas Rings. The 2020 vintage is still in barrel and won’t be bottled until May 2022. It will be released in autumn and then, ideally, should not be touched for a few years so that it can build complexity through maturity.

The German way

Burgundy might have been the model for the previous generation of German winemakers, but the current one has emancipated itself – and is making Pinot Noir the German way.

Julian Huber, 32, has been running the Bernhard Huber winery in southerly Malterdingen in Baden, the warmest wine-growing region in the country, since 2014. ‘It took me time,’ he says, ‘to develop a feeling of how to best express our vineyards in the wines.’ He has reduced the proportion of new oak barrels from 100% to about 30%. He only adds 5%-6% whole bunches now, as the small Pinot berries he selects from his harvest these days no longer need the added ‘seasoning’. They already bear it within themselves.

Heading north, the Mosel region – with only 411ha of Spätburgunder out of the total 8,700ha of land under vine – is now also yielding top-notch red wines. Markus Molitor was one of the pioneers, and other renowned wineries followed suit. Even classic wineries such as Maximin Grünhaus now have Pinot in their range.

Daniel Twardowski started planting and buying vineyards for his ‘Pinot Noix’ winery in Neumagen-Dhron as recently as 2005, focused entirely on Pinot Noir. He replanted the vines (mainly Dijon clones) on the steep slopes of the cool side-valley of the Dhron. He now owns 3.2ha of Pinot Noir, and his oldest vines yielded the Ardoise 2018, a graceful wine whose acidity demonstrates a tensile power imparted by the cool conditions. It’s an exceptional wine from the hot 2018 vintage.

Hardly anyone dares to mention it but, ultimately, climate change also has a positive side. In Germany, grapes now ripen fully almost every year due to the warming temperature. Even the simplest wines are now of good or even very good quality. These are the wines you drink every day, which makes them all the more significant. Frank Adeneuer from Walporzheim of the Ahr has just renamed his estate wine Purist. He wants to express that all the grapes come from his own vineyards and that the focus is on fruit purity.

Hanspeter Ziereisen from Baden also devotes the same level of attention to his Tschuppen Spätburgunder as to his great wines like Jaspis. Hand-harvested from the quality top-hill site, the wine went through long cold maceration, slow fermentation, slow pressing and then ageing in 20- to 30-year-old barrels. The complex Jaspis is reserved for special moments, while the more affordable, refreshing Tschuppen is a wine for today – and hopefully for many tomorrows.

See tasting notes and scores for 12 fantastic Spätburgunders

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After a two-year hiatus, the wine world is getting ready, once again, to descend upon Düsseldorf for another edition of ProWein, the industry’s biggest trade fair.

If many visitors are tempted to dismiss the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia as a boring industrial hub, the fact is that Düsseldorf is home to a vibrant fashion and art scene, in turn supporting really interesting (although often under the radar) cultural, dining and entertainment venues.

Wine and food lovers have a lot to explore and discover beyond the famous traditional breweries, from Michelin-starred restaurants by way of cool wine bars and outstanding Japanese eateries.

An important thing to keep in mind: during major trade fairs, not least ProWein, the most sought-after places, such as the below, tend to get fully booked pretty fast. So choose wisely and act fast.

Wine Bars and Restaurants

Rocaille

(pictured above)

Choose from more than 1,000 wines on the list, carefully curated by owner Michael Spreckelmeyer, including rare vintages and intriguing discoveries. This is one of the best places to drink in town and the French and Italian-inspired cuisine doesn’t disappoint either. Michael’s partner Alexandra is a chef patissière, so make sure you try the desserts too.

Weißenburgstrasse 19, 40476 Düsseldorf

Eiskeller Weinbar

With its charming brick wall, this old ice cellar narrow, cosy and characterful. The wine list features lesser-known names, with a focus on organic and biodynamic producers.

Eiskellerberg 1-3, 40213 Düsseldorf

Saittà

The Saittà family run a little Italian wine and food empire in the Oberkassel neighbourhood, across the river from the Altstadt. Your first stop is Prinzinger by Saittà (Leostr. 1a), an old pub turned into a stylish restaurant. Further up the Luegallee towards Barbarossaplatz you will find Salumeria Saittà (Barbarossaplatz 2), Piazza Saittà (Barbarossaplatz 3), which offers pizza napoletana made according to a 200-year old recipe, and SaittàVini (Luegallee 79). A bit off the main route – which features many more interesting bars and restaurants – is the old Osteria Saittà (Alt-Niederkassel 32), where food and wine imports begun decades ago.

Em Brass

A tiny place full of life. Be ready to take a seat at a communal table and meet like-minded wine lovers. The wine choice, featuring mostly German and French wines, is not extensive but is very well curated. The menu also offers a small but very creative selection of dishes.

Moltkestraße 122, Düsseldorf

Spoerl Fabrik

A converted old factory building, in a picturesque backyard, is the home of Spoerl, where modern European cuisine is served in the restaurant and the beer garden, alongside a small but well-formed wine list.

Tussmannstraße 70, Düsseldorf

Behren’s am Kai

One of the city’s Michelin-starred institutions, in the heart of the bustling port neighbourhood (MedienHafen) now an important creative and artistic hub. Internationally inspired, yet classical, menu and wine list.

Kaistr. 16 · 40221 Düsseldorf-Medienhafen

Great things in little Japan

Unbeknownst to most, Düsseldorf has one of the biggest Japanese communities in Europe. You will soon discover this by walking the streets around Immermannstraße and Klosterstraße. The neighbourhood, a stone’s throw away from the main train station, is a true ‘little Japan’ with all kinds of shops, from bakeries to designer clothing, stationery and, of course, restaurants. Most of them keep a reliable, classical style and you can safely make your way in.

Yabase (Klosterstr. 70) and Takumi Tori (Klosterstr. 72) two good, laid back options.

But Düsseldorf’s Japanese food culture has its pinnacle at Nagaya (Klosterstraße 42), a Michelin-starred icon with European flare. At its little sibling, Yoshi (Kreuzstr. 17) chef Yoshizumi Nagaya offers more traditional kaiseki menus which have granted him yet another Michelin star!

While in the neighbourhood you might be in the mood for a pint at Brauerei Schumacher (Oststraße 123) or for one of the excellent artisanal ice creams at Nordmanns (Immermannstr. 40).

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Pioneers are easily celebrated for exploring unknown territories. On the other hand, those who challenge the status quo of familiar landscapes and call for a reinterpretation of classics can find it difficult to carve a space for themselves.

The latter does not apply to Eva Fricke. Although a winemaker in one of Germany’s most classical regions, she has carved a space of her own on the global wine scene in just a few years.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for six Eva Fricke wines tasted

Her eponymous estate, founded in 2011, has become synonymous with ‘a new Rheinghau’, its reputation first built upon international recognition against the backdrop of some domestic scepticism.

Fricke epitomises, both as winemaker and individual, what it means to bring a fresh approach to a well-established region, home of icons such as Schloss Vollrads and Schloss Johannisberg.

The journey

‘For a long time, even when presenting my own wines, people referred to me as “Eva from Leitz”.’ Fricke is referring to her previous position as winemaker at Weingut Leitz. It is another renowned Rheingau estate, where she honed her craft.

While at Leitz she started experimenting in her spare time, making wines from a mere 0.27ha. The process made it apparent that there was potential for much more than a side gig and for Fricke to pursue her own approach. ‘I always wanted to work organic, more handcrafted and small,’ she says.

Her limited resources opened the path for her international success. With little time to develop sales channels and very little wine to sell, she allocated all her production to three international importers (in Norway, the UK and the US) and one German retailer.

The wines quickly started turning heads.

‘Internationalisation was more a matter of necessity rather than a business plan,’ Fricke says. ‘At some point, I looked at the numbers and understood that this project could be the basis of my future, founded on principles I had very clear in my mind; Riesling from slate; minerality, elegance, organic farming.’

Weingut Eva Fricke is now a 13-strong team, with 77ha of vineyards, including parcels in the Krone and Schlossberg ‘crus’, under a long-term lease. All are farmed organically but not all her wines yet have the organic stamp. Some plots are still transitioning from the conventional practices of previous leaseholders.

‘A new Rheinghau’

Eva Fricke’s journey has been one of self-discovery and reckoning with unexpected success. Her 2019 Lorcher Krone Trockenbeerenauslese became the first Rheingau wine to be awarded 100 points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

This in turn fueled unprecedented demand and prompted her UK importer, Berry Bros & Rudd, to suggest the wines be auctioned at Sotheby’s. This made her one of the youngest winemakers to go under the hammer.

How has the unassuming maverick processed these achievements? One harvest at a time.

‘I always thought these were things that only happened to the big classical domaines. We knew it was a special vintage but never imagined we would get 100 points. When the ratings came out the staff asked me “What will we do now?!”. I told them we do nothing differently. We keep making the best out of what we get each year.’

Challenging the norms

2019 was the first vintage Fricke released noble sweet wines. Like other producers of her generation, Fricke only uses Prädikat levels for her Beerenauslese (BA) and Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) bottlings.

The wines that would fall under the Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese categories are simply labelled as Qualitätswein.

‘I believe this way it becomes much clearer that the focus is on terroir expression. The focus is on the vineyards, and only the vineyards determine the style,’ says Fricke.

This long-standing discussion, among German producers, around the relevance of a quality classification based on must weight at harvest (the basis of the Prädikat system) rather than the origin (as per the Burgundy model), has direct implications on Fricke’s work.

‘I want to keep my labels and my wines clear and very easy to understand. The assessment of the wines has to be based on the quality of the land and the character of the vintage. The goal I’ve set for my team is to create a clear picture of Rheingau with its different soil profiles, microclimates and vines of different ages.’

What is Eva Fricke’s wine style?

Her wines and style are not, admittedly, about experimentation or challenging classicism. If anything, they strip unnecessary fat from the classic styles to rediscover the character of each vineyard and of the Rheingau region as a whole.

The linearity – and lineage – of Fricke’s style is determined by how vintage and plot shape the final result, willingly ceding to more or less structure, more or less aromatics.

There’s energy and pulse but also a sense of ease; the wines have precision but have not been forced into a structural framework. This gives them approachability, even if they have great potential to age.

It’s impossible not to think of the wines as highly expressive of Fricke’s own personality. They are restrained yet assertive; softly-spoken but extremely clear.

Of the 2020 vintage, which has now been released, she says that, following three years of extreme heat, there was an easy balance to the plants and, ultimately, the wines.

‘It is a vintage with great ageing potential that will truly start to show all its character in two to three years,’ she says.

The high mineral extract is coupled with textural complexity and a sense of calm vibrancy. They are indeed very ‘Eva Fricke’.

Eva Fricke recent releases – tasting notes and scores:

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How’s the weather been this year? Awful. ‘La nature m’écoeure’, one of my wine-growing friends posted on Facebook on 8 April, having been out to look at the frost-crippled shoots on his vines that morning: ‘Nature disgusts me’. It takes a lot to make a wine-grower feel that.

He wasn’t alone. Jeremiads echo around the northern hemisphere as 2021 closes. It’s been the year of all the miseries.

None suffered more horribly than the growers of Germany’s Ahr valley, where floodwaters caused by the four-day stalling of Storm Bernd from 12 July over eastern Belgium and western Germany damaged or destroyed 65 wine estates and four cooperatives, costing 133 lives and pulverising homes, bridges and railway lines.

The response from wine lovers and Germany’s wine community has been magnificent, but a full recovery from this terrifying midnight assault by water, which was played out to the sound of shattering windows, falling trees and cries for help from roof-stranded children, will take years.

There were more damaging floods in mid-September, too, in the Gard and in Hérault, southern France, affecting vineyards still carrying 20%-40% of the year’s crop.

Economically, most of the hit in Europe was taken early in 2021 – due to those April frosts, which (as in 2016 and 2017) followed an early budburst after a mild winter. This fatal pincer movement is beginning to look like the most sinister of all global-warming threats to northern hemisphere wine-growers.

As I described in my April Decanter column, vines and growers alike have been managing to cope well with the record summer heat recorded in vintages such as 2018, 2019 and 2020 – but it’s the winter temperatures that have been rising ever more steeply than summer ones. Arctic warming disturbs the functioning of both the polar vortex and the jet stream, meaning that icy polar air now repeatedly bulges down into mid-latitudes during spring.

France has lost at least a quarter of its normal crop – and perhaps €2bn (£1.7bn) in potential revenue – this year, making the frosts more damaging than those of both 2017 and 1991.

Only Cognac, Savoie and Alsace were spared. A ‘warm’ region such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, once considered near-immune to frost, has now seen frost strike two years in succession.

A rainy summer then followed for most regions, with further damage from downy mildew, powdery mildew, black rot and botrytis: parts of Champagne and Burgundy lost about 30% of their vineyards to frost, then another 30% to disease. Roussillon in the southwest struggled with ongoing drought conditions, and the southern Rhône and Provence had to confront both hail and forest fires.

Italy and Spain have seen reduced crops this year, too, though the shortfall for both is less severe than in France (9% in Italy, for example). Drought and wildfires, meanwhile, continue to be a daunting challenge to the vineyards of North America’s Pacific coast, with drifting smoke plumes and smogs troubling growers from California all the way up to Okanagan.

Nor is disorder in nature the only challenge to wine-growers. I’ve often thought, this year, of the almost unimaginable problems facing wine producers and exporters in three countries in particular: Lebanon, hit by one of the world’s worst economic crises of the past 150 years; Argentina, its ongoing recession combined with inflation above 40%; and South Africa, where Covid-19 led to no fewer than four total bans on alcohol between March 2020 and July 2021.

We look at bottles of wine and we see joy and pleasure, smiles and warmth – and we’re grateful. When the very existence of the bottle is a triumph over extreme misfortune, though, even gratitude seems inadequate.

If you ever feel like drinking wine in solidarity with the struggles of growers and their workers, labouring to produce the wines which bring us such pleasure, then this Christmas must be the time to do that.

In my glass this month

A taste, last week, of an outstanding aged Etna red: Tenuta delle Terre Nere, Calderara Sottana 2012. Grown on black, stony pumice soils, this wine was aromatically truffled and mellow, its fine tannins embedded in the natural sweetness of its Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio fruits: serious, grand, classic red wine. As I drank, I wondered what the temperature was in this high-altitude (600m-700m) vineyard while Sicily’s Syracuse, 100km further south, was recording Europe’s highest temperature ever, on 11 August this year, at 48.8°C.

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This is a yearly ritual which has survived all the pandemic’s lockdowns. During the last weekend in August, wine experts met again in the city of Wiesbaden at the invitation of the VDP. These three letters stand for Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter, an association which comprises around 200 of Germany’s best wineries.

The release tasting of the Grosse Gewächs (GG) offers the opportunity to get an impression of the new vintages from the top level, which consists of the best dry wines from the top classified sites.

This year showcased the 2019 vintage for red wines and mainly the 2020 vintage for the whites, presenting 430 wines out of a total of 612 GGs produced. They were poured in 78 flights of four to six wines, arranged by variety and origin.

Scroll down to see the top German Grosse Gewächs 2021 wines

To give an initial, brief overview of their performance: although 2020 was again a warm, very dry year, the third in a row, the whites demonstrate an appealing lightness and delicacy because the wines profited from a change in the weather in August, which brought cooler temperatures and some rain before harvest began in most German wine regions.

The 2019 reds reflect the density of a first-rate year combined with liveliness due to cooler conditions at harvest time.

2020 whites: precision work

2018, 2019, 2020 – three warm, dry vintages, however resulting in different wine styles, with the details causing this diversity.

While 2018 was the warmest vintage, depleting all the soil’s water reserves from winter rains, thus resulting in high yields, 2019 was not quite as hot and temperatures were lower at harvest time, enabling satisfying levels of acidity to be preserved.

The weather patterns seemed to be replicated in the first months of 2020, with insufficient winter rain to replenish the groundwater reservoirs, and a sudden change to warm weather in March causing early budding and hence early flowering. This was followed by a warm summer which only lasted until late August, early September when rain began to fall in most wine regions.

According to Thomas Haag of the Schloss Lieser winery in the Mosel, ‘this rain gave the vines the necessary energy to achieve physiological ripeness at low sugar levels’. Hence, all his Riesling GGs only reached 12.5% ABV combined with fruit precision and fine acidity.

Warm days in September followed by cool nights furnished the ideal conditions to ripen healthy fruit, with berries developing the desirable golden hues at Wilhelm Weil’s winery in the Rheingau. The ideal harvest window seems to be shrinking every year. At Weil, harvest started on 21 September and had already finished in the first half of October for the dry wines. It is only lovers of noble sweet wines who won’t be satisfied with 2020, as the noble version of botrytis arrived very late in the vineyards at Weil, resulting in a tiny quantity of Prädikat wines such as Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese.

On the other hand, the outcome of the colder end to 2020 was the first ice wine since 2016. Rebecca Crusius of Weingut Crusius was able to harvest healthy frozen berries on Monday 30 November – perfect timing for bright but concentrated Riesling fruit.

2019 reds: in the shadow

Rainer Schnaitmann from Württemberg quotes an old saying: ‘You have to get cold fingers during harvest.’ In contrast to 2020, his fingers stayed warm during the black grape harvest in 2019, and he had to chill the fruit to preserve their freshness before maceration and fermentation. However, their acidity level was higher than in 2018, ensuring natural balance in the wines. Hence, 2019 is a promising, sound vintage but might well remain in the shadows of the spectacular 2018 and the fruit-driven 2020.

Klaus-Peter Keller and his son Felix harvested their Pinot Noir earlier than usual in 2019 to ensure a fresh fruit profile and allowed it a briefer maceration and fermentation time, a maximum of 17 days. They also opted for whole berry instead of whole bunch fermentation to maximise the fruit potential for their top selection from the Morstein vineyard. Therefore, they manually removed the thick middle stems from every bunch, which might have absorbed too much colour and acidity, hence causing a drop in pH.

The results

2020 is a year of delicate Rieslings, especially from the Mosel, where the wines demonstrate fewer phenolic compounds than in the previous two years. The Nahe continues its high-quality performance, whereas the huge Rheinhessen region only submitted a small selection of GGs, as wineries tend to delay the release of their GGs by a further year to give them greater time to develop.

Pfalz showed a broad spectrum of Riesling with a wide midfield and few stars. However, Pfalz remains unrivalled for its Pinot Blanc, presenting some stunning wines, mainly from the 2019 vintage.

Silvaner is still Franken’s unique feature, while Baden as usual shines with its reds made from Pinot Noir.

Lemberger from Württemberg is also a source of wonderful discoveries.

GGs are not cheap but are bargains in terms of quality in a worldwide context.

Prices range from thirty to several hundred Euros for wines from renowned, established estates. At the lower end, the 2020 Riesling Heerkretz from Bischel, a new VDP member, is one of the best buys of the current vintage. Moreover, varieties in the shadow of Riesling and Spätburgunder are also good deals, for example the Lämmler Grauburgunder from Rainer Schnaitmann.

Top German Grosse Gewächs 2021 wines

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Fine wine auctions do not regularly feature young mavericks. But that is the case with Sotheby’s upcoming Vine event, which will include three wines produced by Eva Fricke. The German winemaker’s bottles will be numbers 44-200 in a total of 629 lots that will go under the hammer in a sale that also includes a classical assortment of fine wines owned by different British collectors.

The young Rheingau producer has, since establishing her eponymous estate in 2006, gained wide critical acclaim and a faithful following among wine lovers and collectors. She has single-handedly brought new life to the Lorch valley with her focus on terroir expression, fruit purity and her relentless determination to revive old historical vineyards. Fricke honed her craft after graduating from Geisenheim, working for leading producers around the world and as winemaker at Leitz.

Fricke’s very small 2019 Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) and Beerenauslese production will be available exclusively through Sotheby’s. The wines were directly released by Weingut Eva Fricke and are currently held at the Octavian Vaults. A few bottles will be held back and kept at the winery’s library.

The auction house’s interest met Fricke’s need to deal with unprecedented demand – effectively impossible to meet due to the small quantities produced – following rave reviews and record-breaking scores from top critics and journalists. The 2019 Lorcher Krone Trockenbeerenauslese was the first-ever Rheingau wine to receive a 100-point nod from Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate. The Lorcher Kapellenberg Trockenbeerenauslese and Lorcher Schlossberg Beerenauslese scored 99 and 97 points respectively.

‘Following discussions with Eva we felt that offering them for sale on our global auction platform would not only be the fairest way to distribute them but also an opportunity to bring her wines to an audience that may not be aware of her rising talent,’ said Damian Tillson, director and senior wine specialist in Sotheby’s London Wine department.

Only 18 half bottles (375ml) of the Lorcher Krone TBA 2019 will be available for purchase, and each is expected to go for between £2,000 and £3,000. Eva will be donating the hammer price for the first half bottle of the Lorcher Krone TBA 2019 sold to sharethemeal.org.

2019 was the first vintage Fricke produced noble sweet wines. The year yielded outstanding fruit following a tricky spring. As Eva points out, ‘These noble wines are a gift from nature and we can only produce them if the circumstances are right.’ When asked if she’ll produce any in 2021, the reply is cautious: this harvest, following a complex season, is ‘still in nature’s hands’.

The grapes for the TBA and Beerenauslese wines are sourced from very specific plots within each of the single vineyards. The fruit development varies greatly due to clonal differences, exposition and vine age, which explains why only some of them will be suited for the production of these premium late harvest wines, touched by botrytis.

Tillson confirmed he is ‘thrilled to be working alongside Eva, whose wines we are in love with at Sotheby’s.’ The auction house has had to adapt quickly to online sales over the last 18 months and the move opened a far broader, and more diverse, global audience. ‘This has presented us with an opportunity to look beyond the stalwarts of Bordeaux and Burgundy and offer wines that we, as passionate wine lovers, would like to champion.’

Fricke is likewise excited to be part of the Vine auction and feels ‘it is great that Sotheby’s shows interest in younger generations from the wine world as well’.

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New York’s Finger Lakes region was one of the first to hold a large-scale wine event as the world wrestles with easing out of the pandemic.

The Finger Lakes, known locally as FLX, hosted the International Riesling Expo between 17 and 20 July. The grape is a focus here, given the region’s shale soils and cool climate.

It was the second edition of the expo – FLXcursion for short – which saw Riesling authorities from around the globe flying in to join local producers, as well as those from Washington State, Oregon, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

More than 160 wine professionals and 300 consumers attended the four-day event, which featured eight seminars, several wine dinners and an evening tasting entitled the Riesling Crawl.

Riesling expert Stuart Pigott led a discussion of the effects of global warming, with appearances from Jim Barry of South Australia’s Clare Valley, iconic Mosel producer Ernie Loosen, and others.

The seminar ‘Terroir and the age of the internet’, moderated by local writer Maiah Johnson Dunn, featured appearances (and wines) from Mosel producer Johannes Selbach and Pfalz winemaker Andreas Hütwohl of Von Winning, as well as an online cameo by UK critic Jancis Robinson MW.

Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson delivered the keynote address.

Riesling rescue

FLXcursion grew out of participation by Finger Lakes producers at both Washington State’s Riesling Rendezvous, organised by Chateau Ste Michelle, and the International Riesling Symposium, led by the VDP (a group of Germany’s top producers) at Kloster Eberbach.

With these events postponed due to Covid-19, Finger Lakes producers Kelby Russell of Red Newt Vineyards and Oskar Bynke at Hermann Wiemer stepped into the breach to put on the 2021 expo.

Winemaking in the Finger Lakes, a five-hour drive northeast of New York City, is almost ready to celebrate its bicentennial. Yet it is only now coming to prominence for high-quality vinifera wines. Riesling is dominant, accounting for at least a quarter of all vineyards.

One danger of the present FLXcursion format is to focus exclusively on Riesling. This would exclude the other delicious wines of the Finger Lakes, which include top-quality sparkling wine, Cabernet Franc (in both red and dry rosé styles), and cold-hardy varieties such as Saperavi, Rkatsiteli and Blaufränkisch.

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German chancellor Angela Merkel has described the deadly floods that hit parts of Western Europe last week as ‘terrifying’, amid fears that the final death toll could rise.

Germany’s Ahr Valley is among the worst-hit areas. Police said on Monday (19 July) that at least 117 people had died in the Ahrweiler district, according to the New York Times.

Homes and other buildings also suffered extensive damage as fast-moving flood waters surged through towns and villages.

‘It’s a disaster,’ said Marc Adeneuer, of JJ Adeneuer winery in Ahrweiler. ‘There are no bridges over the Ahr river, the streets have been destroyed,’ he said, speaking to Decanter via phone yesterday (20 July).

Mobile network returned on Monday, but electricity and water were still cut off and train lines were also down, he said.

While everyone from his winery is believed to be safe and well, Adeneuer described how a sudden steep rise in the fast-flowing Ahr river caught residents by surprise at around one o’clock in the morning. ‘You had to run for your life,’ he said.

Impact on wineries

Germany’s Wine Institute said it could take weeks to quantify reports of damage to Ahr Valley wineries, which have seen growing international acclaim for excellent Pinot Noir wines in recent years.

Surging flood waters carried away barrels, bottles and even a winery’s press. One barrel that washed up near JJ Adeneuer was from another winery 15km away.

Weingut Sermann, in Altenahr, reported ‘major economic damage’ but also said it was overwhelmed by messages of support.

Local winegrowers have taken a degree of comfort from the arrival of vineyard workers from other wine regions – and people from across Germany in general – to help with the relief effort.

‘The friendship between different wine regions is great to see,’ said Adeneuer, who is head of the local branch of the VDP wine body, or Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter.

‘Many growers from different wine regions are already on-site with forklifts, vineyard tractors or pumps to save what can still be saved,’ said the German Wine Institute.

‘We’ve been pumping water out of the cellar for the last five days,’ said Adeneuer. The team then plans to inspect the wine inside barrels, which they hope may have survived intact.

There are also concerns about the 2021 vintage due to disruption to vineyard work. Adeneuer said people were hoping for the best. ‘First we need electricity and water, then we can start to rebuild everything.’

He added that, while Adeneuer has insurance, it’s thought that not everybody is in the same position.

Call for donations

Wineries and organisations have set up several ways for people to donate to help local winegrowers and communities affected.

Adeneuer has set up an account under the name ‘Ahr – A wine region needs Help for Rebuilding’ for direct donations to aid local winegrowers.

Both the VDP and the German Wine Institute have also published bank details for donations to help Ahr’s wine community.

The WineBarn, a specialist German wine importer in the UK, said it would donate 15% of its profits to the VDP charity appeal during the rest of July. ‘The WineBarn would like to express our deepest sympathy for those affected by the severe floods in the Ahr region of Germany,’ it said.

Account details for donations include:

‘Ahr – A wine region needs Help for Rebuilding’

Account: Ahr – A wine region needs Help for Rebuilding e.V.

Bank KSK AHRWEILER

Branch number: MALADE51AHR

IBAN: DE94 5775 1310 0000 3395 07

German Wine Institute donation account details: 

‘Beneficary (field 59)

Account: DE14 5519 0000 0619 7860 15

Beneficary: Deutsches Weininstitut GmbH

Beneficary Bank (field 57a)

BIC: GENO DE FF

Bank name: DZ Bank AG, Frankfurt / Germany

Bank-to-Bank-Information (field 72)

acc/ Mainzer Volksbank eG, Mainz / Germany

Purpose: Donation Ahr Flooding

VDP donation account details 

Account: Der VDP.Adler hilft e.V.

Bank name: Rheingauer Volksbank

IBAN: DE 21 5109 1500 0000 2045 28

BIC: GENODE51RGG

Subject: Solidarity Ahr Viticulture

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German Pinot Noir: Spotlight on Spätburgunder

Vying for the attention of the expert judges at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2020, Germany’s red wines performed better than in any other year, winning a record-breaking number of Platinum medals.

From elegant Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) to Lemberger and Syrah, below are some top-scoring examples to watch out for…

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Baden

Fritz Wassmer, Sommerhalde Bombach Spätburgunder 2016

97 points,

Platinum

€56 (2017) www.weingutfritzwassmer.de

Opulent, pretty aromas of black cherry, lifted violet, plush raspberry and cocoa lead through to a palate graced with sour cherry, clove, liquorice, red plum and all underpinned with a hint of dark spice. Alc 13.5%

Martin Wassmer, Dottinger Castellberg Syrah 2016

97 points,

Platinum

€64 (2018) www.weingut-wassmer.de

Heady spiced layers of white pepper, vanilla, lush blackberry, sour cherry and supple, seductive oak lead on to a luscious palate laced with black cherry, plum, blackcurrant and harmonious, polished tannins. Alc 13.5%

Fritz Wassmer, Alte Reben Spätburgunder 2017

93 points,

Silver

€29 www.weingutfritzwassmer.de

Perfumed and inviting layers of cold smoke, balmy spice and cherry, while the palate is plush with velvety fruit. Alc 13.1%

Hex vom Dasenstein, Spätburgunder GG 2017

93 points, 

Silver

€19.90 (2018) www.hex-vom-dasenstein-weinshop.de

Plush and brooding with hints of blackcurrant, mulberry and dark spice, then to a palate of elegant toasted oak and rolling tannins. Alc 14.5%

Martin Wassmer, Schlatter Maltesergarten Pinot Noir 2016

93 points,

Silver

£22.40 (2015) The Vineyard Belfast

Elegant and restrained aromas of spice, clove and raspberry, then to a palate of black fruit, mocha and gingerbread. Alc 13.5%

Alde Gott, Von Alten Reben Spätburgunder Spätlese Trocken 2017

92 points,

Silver

€13.50 (2018) www.aldegott.de

Attractive and inviting honeycomb, baked strawberry and dark chocolate nose, cherry and plush spiced oak on the palate. Alc 14%

Schneider, Weiler Schlipf Spätburgunder 2016

92 points,

Silver

£28 (2017) Swig

N/A UK www.weingut-am-schlipf.de

Perfumed with dried herb, heady smoke and Morello cherry, elegant fine acidity and supple tannins on the palate. Alc 13%

Württemberg

Aldinger, Fellbacher Lämmler Lemberger GG 2017

97 points,

Platinum

£50.40 The WineBarn

Elegant and enticing on the nose, with layers of cassis, blueberry, gingerbread, liquorice, clove and lush bramble, then on to a palate of white pepper, lemongrass, plush black fruit and silky smooth tannins. Alc 13%

Schnaitmann, Lämmler Spätburgunder GG 2017

92 points,

Silver

£52 (ib, 2018) Honest Grapes

Inviting and smoky, with flinty hints of elegant spice and red fruit, the palate is graced with blueberry and a neat acidity. Alc 13%

Cleebronn & Güglingen, Herzog C Lemberger 2017

91 points,

Silver

€9.80 (2018) www.cleebronner-weinshop.de

Heady liquorice, candied orange peel, cinnamon and clove lead on to vibrant spicy blackberry and supple, smooth tannins. Alc 13%

Pfalz

Schenk-Siebert, Neuleininger Feuermännchen Spätburgunder 2017

95 points,

Gold

€20 (2018) https://shop.weingut-schenk-siebert.de

Inviting and smoky aromas of plush black fruit, dark chocolate, mocca and luxurious oak, then to a spiced palate of black cherry, blackberry and subtle tannins. Alc 14.1%

Weinbiet, Von Ersten Lagen Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

91 points,

Silver

€7 (2019) https://shop.weinbiet.de

Opulent with black cherry, black current leaf and dark chocolate nose, elegant spice, mocha and pristine tannins on the palate. Alc 14%

Rheinhessen

Lisa Bunn, Nierstein vom Rotliegenden St Laurent 2017

91 points,

Silver

€13.50 (2018) https://weingut-bunn.de

Beautifully aromatic, with layers of tangerine, dried flower and blueberry, then on to a palate of concentrated blackcurrant and shimmering acidity. Alc 13.5%

Rheingau

Georg Müller, Hassel Spätburgunder GG 2017

94 points,

Silver

N/A www.georg-mueller-stiftung.de

Perfumed with mulberry, Morello cherry and toasty oak, supple tannins, dark chocolate and neat acidity on the palate. Alc 13.5%

Kloster Eberbach, Assmannshäuser Höllenberg Crescentia Spätburgunder 2016

93 points,

Silver

£25-£30 Boutinot, Chester Beer & Wine, Drink Finder, Kwoff, North & South, Wild & Lees

Elegant wood smoke, raspberry and chocolate aromatics lead on to spiced oak, blackcurrant, red cherry and harmonious acidity. Alc 13%

Ahr

Maibachfarm, Burggarten Spätburgunder 2017

95 points,

Gold

€29 (2015) www.maibachfarm.de

Smoky, flinty aromas of plush dark fruit, cardamom, gingerbread and liquorice, while the palate is layered with Morello jam, dried blueberry and gentle, polished tannins. Alc 13.5%

Maibachfarm, Recher Herrenberg Spätburgunder 2017

94 points,

Silver

€29 (2015) www.maibachfarm.de

Heady with hints of cassis, Moroccan spice and blueberry leading to dried thyme and plush fruit on the savoury palate. Alc 13.5%

Dagernova, Heimersheimer Landskrone Spätburgunder 2018

93 points,

Silver

€24.90 (2017) www.dagernova.de

Fragrant and inviting with aromas of mulberry, raspberry and herb, crunchy fruit and spice on the silky palate. Alc 13.5%

Kreuzberg, Devonschiefer R Spätburgunder 2017

91 points,

Silver

N/A www.weingut-kreuzberg.de

Heady with candied orange peel, dried herb and dark berry on the nose, plum liqueur and opulent spiced fruit on the palate. Alc 13.5%

Sachsen

Schloss Proschwitz, Spätburgunder GG 2016

94 points,

Silver

€23.50 www.proschwitzer-weinshop.de

Bright with pretty raspberry, heady gingerbread and red cherry leading to forest fruit, vanilla and plush tannins on the palate. Alc 13%

GG Grosses Gewächs

Search all DWWA 2020 results

DWWA 2021 entries are open – enter now

Social distancing was ensured, masks were de rigueur, temperatures were taken and tasters were spaced on individual tables over three large rooms at the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden for this year’s VDP GG Release tasting.

477 Grosse Gewächse, or grands crus, could be tasted: most of them are whites from the 2019 vintage and reds from 2018. Since the annual VDP Weinbörse event, usually taking place in April, had been cancelled, this was the first opportunity to properly assess the 2019 vintage via the top-end, dry wines from single, classified sites.

This release tasting was also perhaps the first proper international wine event to take place since lockdown. It was a joy to be able to taste and the organisation, as every year, was flawless. Spaces were strictly limited but attendance was high, even if tasters from the US and Asia were missing. Europe was there in full force. The verdict: the wines are spectacular. 2019 whites benefited from a cooler harvest and have firm, ripe freshness, the 2018 reds show uncommon elegance and defy the heat of the vintage.

Scroll down to see the top 20 Grosses Gewächs recommendations

See the top 40 wines tasted here

2019 whites: The test of resilience

It is fair to say that Germany has not had such climatic conditions since the Medieval Warm Period. The heat and dryness of 2018 as well as the heat and heterogenous weather events of 2019 posed challenges all of their own.

Dry stress and sunburn foremost among them – it is clear that those estates that learned how to deal with the changing climate in their vineyards have made more complete wines than ever before.

‘2019 is a great, precise vintage,’ said Robert Haller of Bürgerspital in Franken.

‘The only downside was the low yield. Ripeness was optimal and we learned quite some time ago to go on freshness rather than alcoholic strength. There are super Silvaners and it was another fine year for Riesling – so harmonious with a very long life ahead of it.’

Dr Carl von Schubert of Maximin Grünhaus in the Ruwer Valley agreed and cited 2019 as ‘a year with much roundness. There are few vintages that are as much fun in their youth as this one. The wines have a silky consistency and beautiful acidity.’

He also noted a ‘real sense of joy, length, depth and fruity presence.’

Late spring frosts in some regions, several days of temperatures above 40°C in July and rainy days during harvest in September and October had all taken their toll on the yields.

But von Schubert – who has seen every kind of vintage since he took over in 1981 – praised Riesling as ‘the most ingenious grape variety and the most ingenious weed in the world, which brings great results even under difficult circumstances.’

Mark Barth of Weingut Barth in the Rheingau credited the lower temperatures at harvest with the freshness of the Rieslings, ‘The acid is precise and aligned to good volume. The GGs are a rather fine composition of body, acid and fruit.’

After the heatwave in 2018 that used up groundwater reserves, everyone said that 2019 would depend on water levels being replenished over winter. This did not happen, so the resilience of the vines was tested.

Old vines with deep roots coped surprisingly well, regardless of soils, even though they did make a difference. Haller noted that his limestone soils with their capacity for water retention were easier to deal with than well-drained sandstone soils, for instance. But he noted that soil management and humus content mattered more than ever – as well as climate-adapted viticulture.

2018 reds: Managing the heat

Regarding the 2018 reds, Rainer Schnaitmann from Württemberg said: ‘We learned in 2003 already that heat had to be handled. We really paid attention to freshness which may even be too much for some. But we captured great elegance despite the power – you sense the warmth of the vintage without fatness or plumpness. The 2018 reds will be great.’

Schnaitmann, as many of his more progressive colleagues across Germany, uses whole-bunch fermentation to lend backbone and firmness, rather than extraction or oak. With the super-healthy fruit of 2018 this produced gorgeously expressive wines of real purity.

‘Paying attention to pH levels was key,’ added Franz Wehrheim of Weingut Dr Wehrheim in the Pfalz. 

The result

The result is that 2019 Mosel Riesling shines with utter fruit, Saar and Nahe are deliciously hair-raising and exacting, Rheinhessen is on a special path, especially along the Red Slope.

Rieslings from Franken, Württemberg and Baden are new hunting grounds for exceptional styles and quality. The Rheingau has its handful of world stars but also some complacent estates.

Where Spätburgunder is concerned, there no longer is any doubt that Germany’s Pinot Noirs are world class – across different soils and sites. Today they show more personality and finesse than ever.

Elegant Pinot Blancs, savoury Silvaners and spicy Lembergers are the sleepers the international wine world still needs to wake up to.

While the GGs are not cheap, they probably represent the greatest value in wine today – especially considering the steepness of the slopes and the back-breaking work these precipitous, stony vineyards demand.

Riesling, Silvaner, Pinot Blanc & Blaufränkisch: Anne’s 20 top Grosses Gewächs picks

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The revival of Sekt, Germany’s signature sparkling wine

Despite his lean and youthful appearance, the engaging and welcoming Willi Bründlmayer has been at the helm of this family estate for 40 years. As a young man, it wasn’t his intention to be a winemaker, but he was called back to the estate in order to ensure its survival.

The winery is located in Langenlois, the main town of the Kamptal region, and his 80ha of vineyards mostly lie nearby. It’s a versatile region, with a range of terroirs and microclimates, and this has allowed Bründlmayer to establish a wide offering, from a series of impeccable sparkling wines, to classics from Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, to surprisingly successful red wines from an area not especially renowned for them. The barrel-fermented Chardonnay can be one of Austria’s best. And there’s icing on the cake too: delectable ice wines in appropriate vintages such as 2016, and I recall a magnificent Riesling TBA from 2009.

Bründlmayer would be the first to admit that the quality and age of his vineyards are central to his reputation. Grüner Veltliner is the main variety here, and his top vineyards are Käferberg and Lamm, in which the clay and loess soil can result in wines of high ripeness and power. Lamm is located on the eastern slopes of the celebrated Heiligenstein, and it’s a warm site that requires a watchful eye to ensure the grapes don’t overripen. There is also an Alte Reben (old-vine) bottling made from vines at least 50 years old.

He is fortunate to own 11ha in the vineyard widely recognised as the region’s top Riesling site, the 37ha Zöbinger Heiligenstein, located high up on sandstone and primary rock soils. As well as a standard but very good Riesling bottling from here, he also makes an Alte Reben version from vines around 100 years old. In addition to single-vineyard wines, he produces blended wines such as Terrassen from the terraced vineyards typical of the Kamptal, including fruit from vines less than 15 years old from the top sites.

Bründlmayer has long been environmentally conscious, avoiding herbicides and chemical fertilisers and encouraging biodiversity, and since 2015 the vineyards have been certified organic. Willi has long been an advocate of lyre-training in some vineyards, including Heiligenstein. Essentially it’s a form of split canopy training, which allows the vines to be better ventilated, and also exposes a larger surface of leaves to sunlight. Its main drawback is the cost of installation and maintenance, which is probably why it is not more widely encountered.

The winery is gravity-based. Vinifications take place using indigenous yeasts, and he favours Austrian oak of varying sizes for ageing the wines. For Grüner Veltliner he often uses acacia rather than oak, so as to neutralise direct oak influence while retaining the beneficial oxygenation of wood-ageing.

All this makes Bründlmayer a major player on the Austrian wine scene, with sufficient volumes to supply a range of international markets as well as Austrian consumers and restaurants. Large flagship estates are not necessarily always of the highest quality, but the Bründlmayer name on a label offers an assurance of quality ranging from very good to outstanding.

He has hired an expert team, whether in the vineyard or the office, where one of Austria’s few Masters of Wine, Andreas Wickhoff, manages the company. Bründlmayer’s son Vincent not only works alongside his father but has been given vineyards of his own which he has commercialised under his own name since 2011.

Even back in the 1990s Willi Bründlmayer enjoyed experimenting with varieties previously unheard of in Austria, such as Cabernet Franc and Nebbiolo. Some had been planted by his father for domestic consumption rather than commercial sale.

Pinot Noir has, in contrast, long been present in Austria, thanks to monastic houses with their roots in France, but many producers have struggled to express its varietal typicity. Bründlmayer’s is among the best, made from old-vine Austrian selections, and from younger Burgundian clones. For this wine too he uses Austrian oak, in this case 300-litre barrels. The Reserve comes from the oldest vines and is macerated for a longer period. In my experience, this Pinot Noir generally avoids the overripeness and over-extraction that can be found in many Austrian examples.

The Bründlmayer wines can age magnificently. I was poured two 1973 Rieslings from Heiligenstein in 2007 and they were still drinking beautifully, even though they would have been made from higher yields than the 40hl/ha or so customary today. Of course there is no need to age classic wines from the Kamptal for as long as that, but it’s an indication both of the region’s potential and the skill of the Bründlmayer family that the wines can keep for decades.

Stephen Brook’s top six from Bründlmayer

Chris Harrow, by email, asks: I read that German producers were unable to make any eiswin this year due to climate change causing warmer than usual weather. What will they do with all the grapes destined for those wines? Would it be too late to use them for anything else?

Anne Krebiehl MW, a regular contributor to Decanter and author of The Wines of Germany, replies: The initial press release that made these headlines drew its data mainly from the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, which proportionally includes most German vineyards across the regions of Pfalz, Mosel, Ahr, Rheinhessen and Nahe. In other regions however, such as Württemberg and Baden, winemakers were able to harvest eiswein.

In the meantime, the German Wine Institute has amended its press release to reflect that, still noting that German eiswein from the 2019 vintage is an ‘absolute rarity’.

Eiswein is made from grapes that are left on the vine in known frost pockets, on the off-chance that there will be a cold night with the required frost of -7°C. In most years this happened more or less reliably, but that is no longer the case.

The frosts also tend to come later now, after Christmas rather than before, which also diminishes the likelihood of the grapes still being healthy before being frozen.

Also, in low-yielding vintages winemakers are less likely to leave grapes on the vine. Any grapes that are left and don’t freeze end up rotting, so they go to waste.

The last really successful eiswein vintages were 2012 and 2015. But even if an eiswein harvest is successful, yields are minuscule and precious. Climate change does mean that in the future German eiswein will be even more of a rarity than it already is.

This question first appeared in the June 2020 issue of Decanter magazine.

There will be no German ice wine produced in the 2019 vintage as temperatures across Germany’s wine-producing regions have been too warm this winter.

None of the country’s 13 wine-growing regions reached the figure of -7C necessary for the production of the famous dessert wine, which is made from grapes that have frozen while still on the vine.

‘Due to the mild winter, the minimum required temperature for an ice wine harvest was not reached in any German wine region. And the coming days are also no longer expected to have frosty nights,’ said Ernst Büscher from the German Wine Institute (DWI).

It is the first vintage in history that ice wine has not been produced in Germany, and the failed 2019 harvest follows a number of poor years for the sweet wine. According to the DWI only seven producers could harvest ice wine nationwide in 2017, while the 2014/15 winter was so mild that ice wine from the 2014 vintage is also ‘an absolute rarity’.

The future doesn’t look too bright either. ‘If the warm winters continue in the next few years, ice wines from German wine regions will soon become even more of a rarity than they already are,’ said Büscher.

Further challenges

The DWI says that another problem for ice wine production is that in recent years the dates for a possible ice harvest – the times of year when the temperature falls below 7C – have shifted more and more into January and February, while the grapes have tended to ripen earlier and earlier. ‘As a result, the period that the grapes have to survive in a healthy state until a possible ice wine harvest is becoming longer,’ claims the Institute.

A further challenge is created when the yields across the regular grape harvest are low, which lessens the willingness of growers to leave grapes hanging for ice wine production. ‘The harvest amount for ice wine is usually only around 500 liters per hectare on average,’ says the DWI.

Adapting to climate change

Wine producers are increasingly having to consider how to adapt to face the challenges of rising temperatures, a point that was addressed by Dirceu Vianna Junior MW in his Portuguese wines Discovery Theatre at the Decanter Spain and Portugal Encounter on 29th February.

‘We used to laugh at people planting in Central Otago – too cold we thought – and same for England,’ he said. He also noted the decision made last summer to permit different grapes, including Touriga Nacional, in Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur wines.

A recent study found that more than half the world’s vineyards could be unviable if the planet warms by two degrees Celsius.

Additional reporting by Ellie Douglas. 

Climate change and wine: Time to act

Iron Age Celts were drinking wine in what is now Germany’s Baden-Württemberg region long before the Romans arrived, according to a new peer-reviewed study published in the PLOS One journal.

Researchers analysed 133 vessels, from local drinking goblets to imported jugs, to learn about life in the hillfort of Heuneburg between the seventh and fifth centuries BC.

What they found also challenged a commonly held view that imported wine had always been the preserve of social elites in Celtic societies.

Twenty-four vessels analysed contained traces of tartaric acid, which is considered an archaeological calling card for wine.

‘Grape wine consumed at the Heuneburg was probably imported from the Mediterranean,’ said the researchers, who found ‘no evidence of winemaking’ in the area.

Unlike recent results from a similar site in Burgundy, wine traces were found in both imported and locally made vessels, and from both poorer and richer areas.

This suggests wine was more of an everyday drink that helped to define the community’s identity, said the researchers.

‘Maybe labour was even mobilised by “work-party feasts” that included wine consumption,’ they said, citing a theory in earlier research.

But things changed and wine appeared to become more of a status symbol.

By the late sixth century, wine was only drunk from imported Attic pottery and from a new-wave of wheel-made pottery, researchers said.

‘Perhaps wine consumption became more conspicuous,’ they said.

‘Certain actors within Early Celtic society seem to have managed to transform the meaning of wine by successfully limiting its consumption to certain vessels and spaces.’

This, said researchers, could have been a turning point and might be why Greek writer Poseidonius would remark several centuries later that ‘Celtic elites drank wine whereas the lower parts of Celtic society consumed beer.’

Read the full study published in PLOS One

See also: Ancient Celts in Burgundy drank Greek wines

In New York or London you can still be forgiven for turning your nose up at Sekt – German sparkling wine – but in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich Sekt is the new ‘sexy’.

About time, too, since Germany has an illustrious but almost forgotten history when it comes to effervescence. In the mid-19^th century Sekt spelled pure luxury, but by the turn of the millennium it had become a byword for sweetish, mass-produced plonk. Sekt, which had lagged behind in Germany’s quality revolution, is the country’s latest category to experience a revival. It is back with a vengeance – and real quality.

When Georg Christian Kessler founded Germany’s first Sekt house in 1826, he was the disruptor of the day and soon various Sektkellereien sprang up. Kesseler had joined the business of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin in Reims, the widow herself, risen through the ranks and become partner in the Champagne house before founding his own business in Germany. The Germans had experimented with making sparkling wines for a while but Napoleon’s occupation and annexation of the German territories on the left bank of the Rhine from the 1790s until 1814 had left a distinct fashion for that new-fangled, fizzing French wine which soon turned into serious business. Making sparkling wine was, after all, a way of adding value to the naturally acidic and slender German base wines.By 1900 Germany produced more than 10 million bottles of Sekt. This roaring trade attracted taxation: in 1909 the Sektsteuer that had been introduced in 1902 to finance Kaiser Wilhelm’s navy, started taxing Sekt according to price. This turned the tide against the best and most expensive Sekts and allowed Champagne to cement its (well-deserved) place in the world. Two world wars did the rest and Sekt’s fortunes only rose again in the 1950s when big houses like Henkell and Kessler introduced 200ml Piccolo/Pikkolo bottles that popularised the former luxury.By the late 1960s most of the German Sekt houses changed to cheaper, more efficient tank-fermentation and turned initially German, then pan-European base wines into easy-drinking, very affordable Sekt. What had once been the preserve of the rich was now truly democratised – but the art of bottle fermentation was almost lost.In the late 1980s it was once again taxation, or rather a technicality in its administration, that changed Sekt’s fortunes. Winemakers could now hold untaxed Sekt in bond in their own cellars: traditional-method Sekt became a real option again. Experimentation duly started. Some made it their main business, others developed a serious side-line.

The 1990s then saw the legal framework for quality Sekt expanded with the definition of the terms Crémant and Winzersekt. Over the past decade the once demeaned term ‘Sekt’ has been revived and rehabilitated.

In 2018 Germany’s association of elite estates, the VDP, published its own Sekt statute – signalling that Sekt has finally come full circle. Making Sekt is now a serious and distinct discipline with ambitious producers setting their sights firmly on quality. Suitable plots are dedicated to growing base wines for Sekt and are farmed accordingly while quality notches higher and higher.

Sekt: What to look for on the label

Traditionelle Flaschengaerung (traditional bottle fermentation) This is the key term to look out for. While the law defines Sekt, Winzersekt and Crémant, not all producers choose to use these terms.

Winzersekt Prescribes traditional bottle fermentation and 100% estate-grown fruit, must state grape variety and vintage (min. 85% of that variety and vintage)

Crémant Now less used; prescribes whole-bunch pressing for white grapes and max. yield of 100l must from 150kg grapes, and traditional bottle fermentation

The VDP Sekt statute stipulates grape varieties, yields, pressing regimen and traditional bottle fermentation. It distinguishes between Ortssekt (village) with a minimum of 15 months on lees in bottle; and Lagensekt, from a single site classified as either Erste or Grosse Lage, with a minimum 36 months on lees.

Varieties

In terms of grape varieties, Sekt is either classical or uniquely German. When made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay as single varietal or blend, Sekt takes its place neatly alongside other traditional-method sparkling wines from around the world – benefitting from inherent freshness. Increasingly, Pinot Blanc also plays a role.

But Germany’s unique proposition in the sparkling realm is Rieslingsekt. Natural lightness and acidity predestine Riesling for sparkling wine production, but its aromatic make-up, especially the terpenes and norisoprenoids creating its varietal notes of citrus, herbs and stone-fruit can result in very distinct Sekts. Some producers aim for very varietally pronounced Sekts, harvesting later to capture most of the aromatic development.

Such Sekts illustrate the aromatic evolution of Riesling-flavours to perfection. While Rieslingsekts can get quite honeyed with post-disgorgement ageing, even when bone-dry, some producers add an even greater varietal edge by adding a small dosage of a mature sweet Riesling. Others excel in bringing out Riesling’s essential, stony steeliness with long-aged, thrilling, zero-dosage Sekts that should carry the warning ‘for acid-loving adults only’. Rieslingsekt is a category to watch.

Niko Brandner, winemaker at Griesel & Compagnie, who turned heads with his first releases in 2015, speaks of a ‘minimalist’ approach that the top estates adhere to: no filtration, no fining, no enzymes, little or no sulphur and enough time on lees for both base wine and Sekt. This kind of ‘unadulterated, minimalist’ approach also tries to do with no or very low dosage to show off its purity. Brandner says: ‘Artisanal-quality Sekt is experiencing a real upswing and this affects all producers.’

While the production of premium-quality Sekt is still dwarfed by the vast production of tank-fermented Sekts, the Germans have upped their game, particularly over the past decade, and continue to do so – at a fundamentally different level from the initial traditional-method Winzersekts of the late 1990s and 2000s. The best bottles are still slumbering in deep, cold cellars waiting to be disgorged. If you know where to look, there is much to look forward to.

Anne Krebiehl MW’s top Sekt selections:

Anne Krebiehl MW is a freelance wine writer, wine judge and author of ‘The Wines of Germany’

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When Markus Molitor took over his father’s Weingut in 1984, there were just three hectares of vines, today he owns 120 hectares across the most storied Mosel and Saar sites. But Molitor not only heads of one of the largest Mosel estates, he also is one of the best.

Few others work with such focus and dedication – if not to say obsession. But how else could he manage all this – since he still is the winemaker and mastermind, calling every decision in vineyard and cellar. ‘Each wine is individual, each wine gets its attention,’ he says and underlines artisanship: all fruit is hand-harvested and stringently selected. The juices settle naturally, and each barrel is allowed to ferment spontaneously, ensuring individual site expression. Wines then stay on their lees in large Fuder, the traditional, round 1,000L used oak barrel (even though some newer ones are also used) for nine to 10 months.

Weingut Markus Molitor at a glance:

 Area under vine: 120ha, almost all on steep slopes across Mosel (100ha) and Saar (20ha)

Soils: Devonian and Carboniferous slate formations, Permian rhyolite

Varieties planted: Riesling 92%, Pinot Noir 4%, Pinot Blanc 4%

Meticulousness is key to the clear delineation of styles – which in this house is colour-coded by capsule: White stands for dry, green for off-dry and golden for sweet. Within these three categories you get a spectrum of Prädikate. For the dry wines, ripe grapes are Kabinett, riper grapes are Spätlese and even riper, possibly overripe grapes are Auslese. Auslese itself is graded into Auslese, Auslese two stars and three stars.

For the dry wines, there is absolutely no botrytis tolerance for anything below three-star-Auslese where there might be some botrytis. Off-dry wines go from Kabinett to Auslese while sweet wines go all the way to TBA. Next to seven ravishing Pinot Noirs and two Pinot Blancs, 30 dry Rieslings were presented, 16 off-dry Rieslings and 20 sweet Rieslings – up to Beerenauslese.

‘There are six further BAs and 16 different TBAs,’ Molitor said with a smile. Did the dryness of 2018 not prevent botrytis? ‘There was some very good botrytis,’ Molitor noted. ‘In early September we had rain. We were all worried because we remembered 2013 and 2014 when there were late rains [that caused non-noble rot] but after that we had dreamlike weather.’

He noted that unusually there simply were no hard harvest decisions where mitigating losses from non-noble rot becomes a huge logistical challenge. ‘So botrytis did come and on the first day of harvest we selected a Beerenauslese with perfect, fresh botrytis. In 2018 we had much less botrytis than in other years but since this was such a relaxed harvest, we were nonetheless able to select an abundance of nobly sweet wines.’

Scroll down to see the top 15 Markus Molitor recommendationsSee all wines tasted here

To me, the warm and dry 2018 vintage showed off the higher Prädikate in the dry wines to perfection. Kabinett which lives off inherent lightness and killer acidity was hard to pull off: acidity was rounder and there was more body. It was evident that the real, natural balance came from riper grapes: the Spätlesen and Auslesen – some reaching up to 13% – were at the perfect intersection of fruit, extract, body and freshness, i.e. ripe, harmonious acidity.

Molitor puts it well when he speaks of ‘fine, elegant Spätlesen’ and ‘Auslese which represents the perfection of the grapes.’ Both the ‘perfection’ and the meticulousness can be tasted in these astonishingly pure, expressive and site-specific wines. In the sweet range the Kabinetts worked better, here they could beguile with all their lusciousness and fruit – while the sweet Auslesen bring some wondrously glowing fruit and expression – but the dry Spätlesen and Auslesen were the absolute winners.

Riesling and Pinot Noir: Anne’s 15 top picks from Weingut Markus Molitor

See all wines tasted here

The Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) is a German organisation which promotes the country’s top wines and estates. It unites 197 of Germany’s finest wineries under one banner; offering customers guarantees on quality and yield.

Founded in 1910 by the Mayor of Trier Albert von Bruchhausen, the VDP’s goal at the time was to bring together producers under a ‘quality standard’ umbrella that made it easier and more fruitful for them to sell their wines on the auction market.

Today it brings together Germany’s top wineries from all of the country’s 13 wine regions with a common aim of promoting the highest levels of quality within the Germany industry.

Quality Control

Members must adhere to strict rules including low yields, higher starting must weights, selective hand harvesting and five-yearly inspections. VDP members are entitled to use the VDP logotype, a stylised eagle with a cluster of grapes, on the neck and labels of their bottles.

They also have access to the VDP-specific classifications ‘Erste Lage’ and ‘Grosse Lage’ for top dry wines that fulfil the quality requirements. These wines are subject to a tasting panel, must have a maximum yield of 50hl/ha, must be hand harvested and made from traditional grapes in proven sites.

There are currently 197 members, up from 161 in 1990 when the current rules were established. In that time 128 wineries have joined the group and 92 have departed.

Membership is by invitation only with producers known for long-standing quality and a commitment to excellence on a local and global level considered. Members can be demoted from the VDP if they do not meet the organisation’s standards during their five year inspection.

Classifications

As well as the top two tiers – Erste Lage and Grosse Lage – there are two further rungs to the VDP classifications ladder, Ortswein and Gutswein.

Gutswein:  These are often the first wines of a wine year to be bottled and sold and seen as trend-setters for the vintage. They must come from estate-grown grapes and producers are given freedom here to experiment and innovate.

Ortsweine: Wines that express regionality. Fruit must come from one particular village and offer a sense of expression of that particular place. Only regional grape varieties are used and many of these wines come from higher-classified Grosse Lage or Erste Lage sites.

Erste Lage:  Premier Cru wine from first-class vineyards where optimal growing conditions can be found. Wines must be grown and made with a view to sustainability and tradition.

Grosse Lage: The designation for the highest quality German vineyards. Complex – grand cru – wines which express single sites and are known for their potential long-ageing. Dry wines within this category are known as Grosse Gewächs.

Riesling Rules

Around 5% of Germany’s vineyards are included in the VDP classification, accounting for approximately 7.5% of the turnover of the German wine industry. Riesling is the most important grape among VDP producers with 55% of all VDP vineyards planted with Riesling, compared to 23% across Germany as a whole.

Find more wine questions answered here

A first glimpse of the new German vintage can always be had at the VDP Weinbörse in April in Mainz: but it is a jostle and tasting conditions are not ideal. The real test comes in August in the airy, light-flooded space of Wiesbaden’s Kurhaus, an ideal tasting environment with flawless organisation where more than 500 Grosse Gewächse, Germany’s ‘grands crus’, are presented: still dry wines from single, classified sites produced to stringent standards. More than 500 wines could be tasted: from Weiss- and Grauburgunder, via Silvaner, Chardonnay, Lemberger to Spätburgunder – and Riesling of course: 298 of them.

While some have already praised 2018 to the rafters, as though the old paradigm of ‘the riper the better’ still held true, 2018 was a challenging year viticulturally, if not a challenging harvest. It was the year which illustrated who had adapted best to the ever-changing whims of nature since 2018 presented growers with a heatwave, drought and record yields.

Scroll down to see the top 20 Grosses Gewächs recommendations

See the top 40 wines tasted here

Vineyards late last summer looked downright biblical: groaning with picture-perfect, healthy grapes. Most of the vines were still in fine fettle when other vegetation had started to droop. Particularly old vines took everything in their stride. But what of the burgeoning fruit? Only those with careful yield and canopy management could harvest wines with tension. Rot was not a problem, but possibly concentration.

One winemaker encapsulated it: ‘There are hardly any bad wines, many decent wines and very few outstanding wines.’ Another said: ‘Great wines are not made in extreme years. Really great Riesling vintages are those where the vines can develop in a more normal fashion.’ A third said: ‘You have to pick wisely in 2018.’

A Riesling vintage for non-Riesling drinkers?

Tasting the wines, there was a lot of variation – but down to winemaker rather than region, even though Rheingau was one of the patchiest. The Mosel did well but really is atypical – but again, those who were in tune with their vineyards delivered.

Germans often speak of ‘ripe acidity’ and mean an acid structure that is pleasantly fresh without being bracing, think Cox Orange Pippin rather than Granny Smith, or golden Amalfi vis-à-vis pale, anaemic lemon. The good 2018s had that in spades. Almost every winemaker remarked on it.

Philipp Wittmann of Weingut Wittmann in Rheinhessen said: ‘Indeed, a crazy year, but cool nights afforded us a vintage with German virtues: freshness, elegance and thankfully moderate alcohol levels, more classic than we all expected. We all worried about overripeness, about acid that would be too soft, but acid levels were stable. Harvest logistics, as we learnt in [previous hot years] 2009 and 2011, had to be spot on.’

Urban Kaufmann of Weingut Kaufmann in the Rheingau said the same: low pH levels and surprisingly stable acidity plus a good weather forecast made this harvest almost ‘relaxing’. According to Hansjörg Rebholz, of Ökonomierat Rebholz in the Pfalz, ‘picking the right harvest point, not too early, not too late, was the biggest challenge of the year.’ But he also mused: ‘I think we have learned such a lot in the meantime when it comes to hot, dry years. We worked a lot in the vineyards, reduced yields accordingly, shaded the fruit to prevent overly phenolic notes. I think all these measures paid off.’

Cooler nights in late summer also helped to save the day. The combination of ripeness and freshness prompted Dr Carl von Schubert at Maximin Grünhaus in the Ruwer to say: ‘Even for someone like me who has 40 vintages under his belt this was astonishing.’

What of the sweet wines? Caroline Diel of Schlossgut Diel in the Nahe said ‘with really great ripeness and juiciness but also gripping acid structure we could make thrilling Kabinett style wines.’ Veronika Lintner at Egon Müller Scharzhof in the Saar noted that botrytis could develop despite the dry conditions: ‘Even if 2018 was not a strong botrytis vintage, we nonetheless had an early onset of very clean, clear botrytis. Of course, the acid levels were not quite as high as usual but the pH levels, on average at 2.9, were very low, so the wines remain very expressive. We were able to harvest all Prädikat levels up to Trockenbeerenauslese.’

2017 red wines

As regards the reds from the 2017 vintage, a year diminished by frost and hail damage, a new German paradigm starts taking hold – and this goes for both Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Lemberger (Blaufränkisch). The best estates no longer chase power and have shifted the focus on the purity of their fruit which only really shines when sufficient acid is present. This pristine fruit is no longer cloaked in too much oak, either. Depth, purity and poise speak for themselves. Especially Baden has turned a corner while Franken has led the way for some time. This, however, only goes for the best estates. There still are some ungainly reds marred by the triple flaw of overripeness, extraction and oak. But what is good is spectacular.

Now that a few more Silvaners are exported, two wines have made it to the top 20 selection, too. It is an exquisite, understated and underrated variety worth getting to know better. More and more estates presented their GGs with (welcome) delay – two 2017 Rieslings are thus also included.

Riesling, Silvaner, Pinot & Blaufränkisch: Anne’s 20 top Grosses Gewächs picks

See the top 40 wines tasted here

The estate owns 25ha of vines, including plots in nine Grosse Lage vineyards – the highest quality classification as set out by the VDP – including the monopole of Oberhäuser Brücke.

Today, the estate is run by fourth-generation Cornelius Dönnhoff, but it was his great-grandfather Hermann Dönnhoff who began selling single-vineyard expressions of Riesling from their best sites in the 1920s, and the family’s winemaking history can be traced back to the latter part of the 18th century.

Cornelius’ father Helmut had run the estate since the early 1970s, and is largely responsible for establishing the estate’s modern-day reputation and quality.

Style

Dönnhoff is renowned for its racy, elegant wines which can have a potent mineral character and plenty of tension.

The wines are whole-bunch pressed, with the drier styles fermenting naturally in cask before transferring to stainless steel and spending a handful of months on the lees. Botrytised grapes used for sweeter styles are fermented shortly after pressing with cultured yeasts, to avoid the grapes spoiling.

The Nahe region

Nahe has a wide diversity of soils, from slate and limestone to loam and sand. Located between the Rhine and Mosel valleys, most of the vineyards overlook the Nahe River. Riesling dominates, although many other varieties are grown in smaller quantities.

Top Dönnhoff wines as rated by Decanter’s experts:

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Jochen Dreissigacker’s story exemplifies Rheinhessen’s wine revolution. His modern, new winery finished in May 2018 is visible from afar. Built into the vineyard to exacting standards, it cost millions. It is site potential and confidence made manifest.

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Dreissigacker, still under 40, remembers a time when punters recoiled from Rheinhessen at wine tastings, so tainted was the region with its image of cheap, indifferent, high-volume wines. The only wine worth tasting would be from the Roter Hang, or Red Slope – a dramatic escarpment along the Rhinefront.

But Rheinhessen’s hinterland? ‘Nein, danke.’ To a degree this was justified – and climate change was a decisive factor. An official guide book, Die Rheinweine Hessens, published in 1927, shows that while viticulture was widespread and central to the economy, there were only two spots where Riesling ripened reliably: on the famous Red Slope and in the Scharlachberg, a south-facing quartzite slope in Bingen. The rest of Rheinhessen was often too cool to ripen Riesling fully each year.

No wonder earlier-ripening varieties and crossings abounded in post-war years. Here was the vast pool of plentiful, cheap Müller- Thurgau, Silvaner and Kerner that slaked the thirst of newly converted wine drinkers in the UK, US, Scandinavia and Canada who had just been acquainted with the guise of continental sophistication that was Liebfraumilch.

That Rheinhessen has fascinating soils was not so evident then: the way grapes were grown did not offer that – and, admittedly, soil was substrate rather than provenance. Almost all of Rheinhessen used to be an inland sea within the Mainz Basin. Its Tertiary sediments created today’s limestone soils, covered in places with loam, sand, silt or gravel. All this lies atop much older formations which only come to the surface in certain spots.

The Roter Hang, for instance, where a 5km stretch of Rotliegendes, a reddish sandstone, slopes majestically down to the Rhine between Nierstein and Nackenheim. Its vineyards, namely Rothenberg, Pettenhal, Hipping and Oelberg, face east-southeast, catch the morning sun and benefit from the thermic stability of the Rhine. That red stone gives the Rieslings an unusual, herbal savouriness. The other spot is on the Devonian quartzite of the Scharlachberg in Bingen and former islands of volcanic porphyry in the west. But most of Rheinhessen’s vineyards are gentle slopes, which lent themselves to mechanised, large-scale viticulture. The image stuck, the world markets and consumer preferences changed, and by the 1990s Rheinhessen ailed.

Sudden ascent

Today, things could not be more different. The opening shot was fired less than 20 years ago when ‘Message in a Bottle’ was founded in 2002, an initiative of young, ambitious winemakers who focused on single-vineyard sites, quality and provenance. This was an illustrious gathering including all of today’s stars: Klaus Peter Keller, Philipp Wittmann, Hans-Oliver Spanier and more. But they were more than a group of youngsters with new ideas; their drive and energy were about survival, as Dreissigacker explains: ‘Many estates had their back to the wall.’

Rheinhessen at a glance

Area under vine* 26,617ha

Grapes* 70.9% white, 29.1% red; Riesling 4,628ha, Müller-Thurgau 4,292ha, Dornfelder 3,365ha, Silvaner 2,228ha, Grauburgunder 1,721ha, Spätburgunder 1,467ha, Weissburgunder 1,302ha, Portugieser 1,159ha, Kerner 802ha

Production** 2.9m hl (2018)

Producers 2,394 bottling their own wine Of 136 communes in Rheinhessen, 133 produce wine** Officially there are three Bereiche (viticultural districts) – Bingen, Nierstein and Wonnegau – and 414 Einzellagen (designated singlevineyard sites) The VDP has classified 38 Grosse Lagen (410ha in total) and 25 Erste Lagen (1,527ha)

Sources: *Deutsches Weininstitut Bodenheim 2019; **www.rheinhessen.de

Their business model of producing as much bulk wine as possible no longer added up. But these youngsters were well educated and well travelled, so they recognised the potential that lay at their feet. They were also fed up with being labelled world-class tractor drivers with poor winemaking skills. ‘All of a sudden really good wines were made,’ Dreissigacker says, as yields were lowered, grapes handharvested, and wines made with dedication. What’s more, the public loved them.

Today the sites have been recognised. The Grosse Gewächse, or grands crus, of Morstein and Kirchspiel, Heerkretz and Hubacker sell out and are bynames for quality. The southern limestone-dominated Wonnegau, the northern Selz Valley with its limestone ridges, and the complex volcanic soils in the beautiful heathland of the west have become hotspots not only for Riesling, but also for nuanced Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir).

The traditional Pinot-pocket of Ingelheim is once again suffused with ambitious winemakers, and a newly energised Roter Hang is leading the way in adapting to the increasing challenge of climate change. Rheinhessen is also home to Germany’s most sought-after, most expensive dry Riesling – G-Max by Klaus Peter Keller.

Yet, not all Rheinhessen has followed suit. In this vast region, Germany’s largest with 26,617ha, sandwiched between Pfalz, Nahe have grown up, as has the region. But we are not yet where we want to be,’ says Johannes Geil-Bierschenk of Weingut Oekonomierat Johann Geil, who is chairman of Maxime Herkunft Rheinhessen (‘Maximum Provenance Rheinhessen’). ‘The dynamic of the region is unbroken. The aspiration is still the same,’ he says. The collaborative approach of the group is powerful. Members commit to lower yields, later release and the quality pyramid of Gutswein, Ortswein and Lagenwein (estate, village and single site wines) already practised by the VDP producers’ association.

Committed to quality

All of Rheinhessen’s VDP member estates are also Maxime members, even though they abide by stricter statutes: this was a calculated sign of cooperation and shows how much the VDP’s message of provenance-based publicity has pervaded German thinking. The aim is to enshrine this easy-to-understand and provenance-based pyramid into law.

Maxime Herkunft by now has 90 members, but they only represent 7% of Rheinhessen’s vineyard. Their domestic and international success stands in contrast to the ultra-low margin economics of bulk production. The varietal statistic is telling. Of 26,617ha in 2017, 4,648ha were Riesling, 4,292ha Müller- Thurgau, followed by 3,365ha of Dornfelder as the top varieties. A decade earlier, in 2007, according to Deutsches Weininstitut Mainz, those stats were: 4,320ha Müller-Thurgau, 3,769ha Riesling, 3,444ha Dornfelder.

Philipp Wittmann of Weingut Wittmann says: ‘The greatest story here is the vineyards, and it is astonishing that not everybody has understood this yet.’ The latest generation is upping the ante even more, also with Chardonnay and particularly Sauvignon Blanc.

Thus Geil-Bierschenk’s words make sense: ‘We form the qualitative forefront of the region. We cannot wait for change to happen.

‘We want that provenance can be tasted in our wines, and this can only be achieved via quality. Rheinhessen today is an Eldorado for the young, the wild, the different.’

Rheinhessen: 10 names to know

Roter Hang

Fritz Ekkehard Huff, Nierstein-Schwabsburg

Christine Huff, her Kiwi husband Jeremy Bird-Huff and her father Fritz Ekkehard farm 8.5ha in Nierstein and Schwabsburg with choice parcels in Pettenthal and Orbel. She is one of the young stars at the Roter Hang, making wines that combine effortless lightness and wonderful, aromatic depth.

Gunderloch, Nackenheim

Johannes Hasselbach joined this quality stalwart on the Roter Hang after a time in accounting. His family was famous for its off-dry and nobly sweet wines from the Rothenberg vineyard, but Johannes makes predominantly dry wines which always seem to have an appealing scent of petrichor. His work in channelling the heat in the vineyard is exemplary.

Kühling-Gillot, Bodenheim

Carolin Spanier-Gillot’s parents managed to assemble a great portfolio of sites on the Roter Hang and she went about expressing it. Today, the wines are made by her husband Hans-Oliver Spanier who runs his equally great Battenfeld-Spanier estate on the limestones of the Wonnegau, employing spontaneous ferments, large old barrels and long ageing on gross lees to bring out salty, intense expression.

Wonnegau

Bianka & Daniel Schmitt, Flörsheim-Dalsheim

This young couple have struck out to make unconventional, skin-fermented and amphora-aged wines and do so with utter precision and devotion, and a particular knack for creating expressive blends. With 16ha biodynamically farmed vineyards, they are more famous abroad, and do more trade, than at home.

Keller, Flörsheim-Dalsheim

While Julia & Klaus Peter Keller’s G-Max Riesling is too rare for ordinary mortals to get their hands on, simply everything that the Kellers produce is worth buying – and surprisingly affordable. Their Rieslings are crystalline, their Pinot Noirs dreamy and expressive. If you can get your hands on a Scheurebe Kabinett, buy it for its sheer, exuberant exoticism.

KF Groebe, Westhofen

Fritz Groebe is the quiet man of the Wonnegau. His wines are made in a very time-honoured, slow fashion in an old vaulted cellar beneath Westhofen. Nothing is hurried, nothing is loud, the wines just are. They are serene and pure and made to last. His 8.5ha include parcels in Aulerde, Morstein and Kirchspiel. Great value.

Liebfrauenstift, Worms

Wilhelm Steifensand is a descendant of PJ Valckenberg, who in 1808 bought the vineyards once tended by the Capuchin monks of the Liebfrauenstift. The Valckenberg trading company popularised the original Liebfraumilch in the 19th century and paved the way for the pale imitations that swept the world in the 1960s and ’70s. Steifensand sold his share in 2015 but retained the original vineyards in Worms with the aim of restoring this Riesling to its historic glory. The 11.5ha are farmed organically.

Wittmann, Westhofen

Philipp Wittmann’s parents were already ahead of their time with organic farming, and Philipp introduced biodynamic methods as early as 2004. Since he took over fully in 2007, the estate has climbed to Germany’s top with pristine Rieslings from the best sites in Westhofen. Wittmann also buys in additional fruit for his affordable 100 Hügel label.

North & West

Knewitz, Appenheim

Since brothers Björn and Tobias Knewitz took over their parental estate in 2009 they have earned deserved plaudits for their brilliantly pure, snappy and bright Rieslings. They farm 20ha mainly of calcareous loams and marls on limestone bedrock around Appenheim. Great value.

Wagner-Stempel, Siefersheim

Daniel Wagner has put this ruggedly beautiful area on the map with his steely, pristine, uncompromisingly thrilling Rieslings grown in the volcanic ridges of rhyolite and melaphyr. He describes it as ‘undiscovered and wild, hard to farm but compelling’. Certified organic since 2008. Best vineyards Heerkretz and Höllberg

See Anne Krebiehl MW’s top-notch dozen from the Rheinhessen

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Life, for German Riesling growers, should be one long hurrah. The world is moving away from obvious oak and high alcohol; and ‘minerality’ is the most popular word in the contemporary wine lexicon.

All these things should have the Riesling growers of the Mosel and Rheingau, Pfalz, Rheinhessen and everywhere else bouncing out of bed each morning with cries of joy. And actually, they often do.

The cries of joy might be a little muted because, being farmers, they never quite trust good news. But fashion has swung hard in their direction. And for once the climate is on their side.

Scroll down to see Margaret Rand’s top 10 dry and off-dry German Riesling picks

The upshot is that there is a new wine style for Brits to get to grips with. New to us, that is. German Riesling can be off-dry, in the traditional way, or it can be bone dry. Germans have valued their dry Rieslings for years, but the British wine trade, normally able to spark interest among consumers in any new wine, finds dry German Riesling a tough sell.

The usual reason (and I can’t think of any other, so we’ll stick with it) is that sweet Liebfraumilch and its like destroyed the reputation of all German wines. But good grief, worse sins than that have been forgiven by another generation. Think of platform shoes!

While we’ve been looking the other way, Riesling has been evolving: getting drier, riper and more precise. Climate change is taking German Riesling into its comfort zone, and dry wines that used to be a speciality only of more southerly regions like Baden or the Pfalz, and then the Rheingau, are now made in the Mosel. And successfully, too.

Even 10 years ago, wines with residual sugar comprised about 60% of production in Germany; now that’s down to about 30%. The better dry Rieslings get, the more people want them; and the more conditions favour dry wines, the more growers want to make them.

Balancing act

Making a dry wine is not merely a question of letting your vat ferment to dryness. Balance is key. For balanced dry wines, you need ripeness; back in the early 1990s dry Rieslings could be skeletal and hard. The 1970s had three good years, three mediocre ones and four bad ones.

Warmer summers have opened up a realm of possibilities to growers who in the past struggled to make something drinkable. ‘We used to have years of no Kabinett at all, like 1980, 1981 and 1984, because we had to chaptalise everything’, says Christian Ebert of Schloss Saarstein.

It’s not just climate: lower yields and better viticulture have also helped to produce wines with more stuffing; wines that don’t need residual sugar for balance. The classification of Grosses Gewächs, focussing as it does on dry wines at the top of the market, reminds growers that you have to start with good sites.

What you get, along with the greater concentration that comes with lower yields and better viticulture, and the better ripeness that comes from all that plus a warmer climate, is wines of crystalline precision.

‘Roll back the sugar and it’s like the tide going out. Every contour is visible’ – Margaret Rand

Reducing levels of residual sugar is cruelly revealing to any wine: faults will show. Think of how much more precise Champagne is these days, with lower dosage made possible by exactly the same factors that have benefitted German Riesling: roll back the sugar and it’s like the tide going out. Every contour is visible.

Personally I adore the new dry Rieslings for their crystalline precision and transparency. But sweeter Rieslings are how I first learned to love Riesling, and it would be disloyal to abandon them.

Dry, the new sweet?

For those more used to traditional off-dry Rieslings (which are now usually referred to as ‘fruity’, to distinguish them too from properly sweet dessert Rieslings) it can be a shock: these dry wines don’t taste as you expect Riesling to taste. They could be two different wines: the first impression is of far less fruit, far more austerity.

But persevere. They are mineral in the truest sense of stony-tasting; they’re clear, pure, tightly knit; they’re like looking at a wine down a microscope.

At first you might be tempted to flee back to the safety of a juicier, off-dry wine; one has to adjust one’s focus, even stop thinking of off-dry Riesling as the norm. Embrace those tight, stony flavours: this is Riesling stripped bare, as nature (perhaps) intended. This is beginning to sound as though off-dry Rieslings are the also-rans, the lesser, unripe wines propped up by sugar, their faults disguised by a veil of sweetness.

That’s not so. Personally I adore the new dry Rieslings for their crystalline precision and transparency. But sweeter Rieslings are how I first learned to love Riesling, and it would be disloyal to abandon them.

Take Kabinett, for example. It’s the most delicate of wines, yet will age for years; it can have as little as 7.5% alcohol – half the alcohol of many a warm-climate red, and with no less flavour. It’s a particularly German style: off-dry Riesling is rare in Austria and eccentric in Australia. You’ll find it in Alsace, but it will have more alcohol.

Light, ‘fragile’ Kabinett is the essence of what off-dry Rieslings (which are now usually referred to as ‘fruity’, to distinguish them from properly sweet Rieslings) can be.

Logically it should be threatened not just by fashion, but also by climate change. The vineyards that used to yield good Kabinett can now be just a bit too warm to give that perfect tension of fruit and acidity – that fascinating dancing tautness of a good Kabinett.

So growers are looking elsewhere. Some growers, such as Ernie Loosen, are turning to vineyards that used only to give QbA-level wines: he’s planting just below the forest, at the top of the slopes. As the ‘better’ vineyards become more suitable for dry wines, so vineyards that used to be less highly regarded are coming into their own and giving the sort of ripe raciness that we want in Kabinett.

Food-match marvel

It would be tempting to view dry Rieslings as modern, and fruity ones as a bit traditional, a bit old-school. Every time a younger generation takes over at a winery and starts focusing on dry instead of sweet, that view is reinforced; but a look at our drinking (and eating) habits might make us want to reconsider.

It’s routine to describe Kabinett as a perfect aperitif, and it is, especially in the summer. But its intensity of flavour means that it also works with food: crab, trout, salmon, scallops, of course – they all suit a touch of sweetness and they all need acidity. So does a good duck liver pâté.

All sorts of fusion food, too, with its unpredictable meetings of hot and sour and sweet and savoury, need Riesling – Riesling should be the default choice whenever you look at a list of ingredients and think, ‘right, what on earth do I put with that?’

Says chef Roger Jones of The Harrow at Little Bedwyn restaurant: ‘It’s a marvel to match to a huge variance of flavours and textures. I would, however, keep German Riesling away from over-spiced food, especially Indian flavours, although some restrained spice as in Japanese fusion is fine.’

Think of dry and sweet not as opposites between which you must choose, but a spectrum of flavours to explore. Dry Riesling from the Mosel is as good an aperitif as Mosel Kabinett; a weightier Grosses Gewächs from the Rheingau will handle game. That’s what Germans will often drink with venison, with a bit of fruit sauce to help the match. And I’ve successfully put fruity Rheingau Spätlese with pheasant à la Normande, where the savoury sweet apple sauce makes a match with red more complicated.

Less is more

I do have some caveats. Oak, for example. It’s hard to think of a single example where new oak has improved a Riesling. (Old oak fuder are a different matter, adding weight and gravitas, but not vanilla.)

Pfalz producers have long experimented with oak in all the varieties it grows, and while it can work on the Pinot family it doesn’t on Riesling. Ever. Sorry.

Then, yeasts. You can get yeasts that are neutral in their flavour; you can get yeasts that emphasise different flavours in the grapes; or you can use indigenous yeasts, either selected from your own vineyards and produced for you by a friendly laboratory, or just left to chance.

The latter option – crushing the grapes, putting them in a vat and leaving them to get on with it – is riskier, but fashionable.

Wild yeasts, however you handle them, give less obvious fruitiness, but more minerality, more texture, more subtlety.

Yeasts that enhance flavours are, to my mind, less desirable. At their extreme you’ll notice improbably brilliant fruit flavours. It’s not necessary, any more than lees-stirring (another aberration) is necessary. It’s as though some growers, having decided to make dry wines, daren’t leave them alone. Riesling doesn’t need all this.

Switching to dry wines can be a shock, but it’s a good shock, making us reassess the grape. And if that makes us abandon a few prejudices, well – hurrah.

Margaret Rand’s pick of dry and off-dry Rieslings

2018 whites & 2017 reds, with a few late-release wines too...

Curiosity was great at the first outing of the 2018 whites and 2017 reds at the Weinbörse tasting in Mainz, Germany, held at the end of April each year. It’s a key event for the VDP, covering all levels from Gutswein to Grosse Lage, although the Grosses Gewächs (the top category of dry wines) are not released until September. In the meantime, you can see last year’s Grosses Gewächs report here

What is the VDP?The Verband deutscher Prädikatsweingüter consists of 196 top wine estates from across Germany’s 13 wine regions. The group is vetted for and adheres to strict rules including low yields, higher must weights, selective hand harvesting and five-yearly inspections. Wine estates that belong to the VDP bear the group’s eagle symbol on the bottle.

Around 5% of Germany’s vineyards are included in the VDP classification.

The very best wines made within the VDP may be classified as Grosse Lage, the German equivalent of a grand cru. These wines are subject to a tasting panel, must have a maximum yield of 50hl/ha, are hand-harvested and must be made from traditional grapes in proven sites. Below this top level is Erste Lage (‘premier cru’), then Ortswein (‘village wine’) and Gutswein.

Beyond this terroir-driven classification, differing styles within each level can be indicated as with non-VDP prädikatswein, with Trocken, Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese appearing on the labels.

A quick guide to German grape names

Many German grape varieties have synonyms. Below are some found in this report.

Pinot Noir – Spätburgunder

Blaufränkisch – Lemberger/Limberger

Pinot Blanc – Weissburgunder

2018

After two meagre harvests, 2018 was not only hot and dry but also plentiful.

4/5

A heatwave year

On show were the whites that ripened in the record-breaking summer of 2018. The fruit was healthy and abundant. The fact that 2018 was generous is a boon: it allowed winemakers to experiment more and it will also mean that they can afford to hold some wines back for later release – a concept that’s becoming more and more popular in Germany.

A handful of these late releases add some depth to the tasting notes below, and in fact Clemens Busch’s Marienburg Fahrlay-Terrassen Riesling Grosses Gewächs 2016 earns my joint-top mark.

One question is whether the wines in 2018 still have their customary acidity – a justifiable question as tartaric acid was completely sold out in late summer last year. Tartaric is the acid proper to wine but it can also be used as an additive – quite legally – to acidify must.

Canopy management

The best producers in Germany, many of whom are assembled in the VDP ranks, have learned a lot since the last heatwave summer of 2003. Travelling around the wine regions last summer, I noticed that most vines took the heat and dryness in their stride, often standing tall in juicy, green leaf, as orchards and shrubs around them drooped.

Their vineyards are well-adapted now, with canopies micro-managed to ensure fruit shading with good ventilation, ensuring health and freshness. Shortened canopies reduce assimilation surface: fewer leaves means less photosynthesis and allows grapes to ripen aromatically without clocking up too much sugar.

VDP chairman Steffen Christmann from the warm Pfalz region noted that while 2018 was disproportionately warm in the cooler regions, the warmer, southern regions had not been much hotter than usual. What was different was the dryness, which meant some dry stress but, thankfully, sufficient winter rain meant that this was mostly confined to young vines lacking deep root systems.

A question of acid

With early bud-break, the early harvest had not really shortened the vegetative period but harvest point was still crucial. Robert Haller of Würzburg’s Bürgerspital reported that Silvaner was harvested even before Müller-Thurgau, while Anne Dönnhoff of the Dönnhoff estate in the Nahe reported that fruit was so wonderfully healthy that a ‘short, compact harvest’ was possible.

Dorothee Zilliken of Weingut Forstmeister Geltz Zilliken in the Saar reported that, curiously, acid levels were lower than usual – still around the 7-8g/l mark, but with pH levels as low as ever at 2.9.

Other producers echoed this sentiment but none could quite explain this freak of nature. Dr Carl von Schubert of Maximin Grünhaus in the Ruwer said: ‘This year, Bruderberg was a magician. The wonderful acidity was still there.’

In terms of Riesling, retaining acidity was key. ‘Looking at pH was crucial in 2018,’ explained Daniel Wagner of Weingut Wagner Stempel in Rheinhessen, noting that he looked back at his records from 2003 to marvel how much he had learned since then. He also noted that he whole-bunch pressed without employing any skin contact in order to keep the pH low.

So work in both vineyard and cellar was geared to preserve as much freshness as possible in 2018. It’s surprising how vivid and refreshing the wines are without making teeth hurt as some young Riesling vintages can. The wines are approachable and open already and will be a joy for those who love ripe fruit expression.

2017 reds

Sorting, sorting, sorting was the mantra in 2017, but what is here is sinuous, pure and fresh.

4/5

The reds from the 2017 vintage show an elegant bent with fine freshness. The wines in these non-Grosses Gewächs categories are of excellent value, and as an Ortswein (village wine) showcase of Rheinhessen demonstrated, they do age beautifully.

Anne’s top German VDP wines from the latest releases:

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Dr Loosen is one of Germany's - and the world's - best producers of Riesling. See our top picks below...

Ernst Loosen, current owner of the Dr Loosen estate just outside Bernkastel, did not intend to be a winemaker.

His father had sent him to complete his winemaking studies at Geisenheim in 1977, however as soon as he had finished, he decided to follow his passion for archaeology and headed to university in Mainz.

His future as a world-class winemaker was not looking very likely until 1986, when his father fell ill. Not wanting to see the family business sold off, Ernst volunteered to return from university and run the estate, making his first vintage, 1987, in 1988.

In the early days, he headed out to visit key wine regions around the world, including Burgundy, Alsace and California. It was these visits that cemented the idea in his head that the greatest wines in the world preserved a sense of heritage and terroir.

Scroll down to see our top-rated Dr Loosen wines

The estate was arguably not in its best shape when Ernst inherited it – vines which should have been re-planted long before had been left and some were now over 100 years old, and still ungrafted.

Seeing this as a blessing in disguise, he decided to cut yields dramatically and improve selection when picking. His staff, however, were not keen on this increased workload and walked out, leaving him and his winemaker, Bernhard Schug to consider a new beginning, following a more organic approach in the vineyards.

Loosen’s winemaking practices have been heavily influenced by the lack of modern equipment in the cellar, combined with techniques picked up in conversation with the great winemakers of regions he visited.

His dedication to a traditional approach, focussing on terroir, has led his wines to become some of the most lauded examples of German Riesling. The estate owns vines in some of Germany’s most famous vineyards, including Erdener Prälat and Ürziger Würzgarten. In fact, Dr Loosen owns plots in six Grosse Lage (‘grand cru’) vineyards.

His fame arguably originates with the sweeter styles, but his dry Rieslings, especially from the Grosse Lage vineyards, have developed a strong following in recent years too.

Dr Loosen factfile:

Hectares under vine 20

Annual production 200,000 bottles

Grosse Lage holdings Bernkasteler Lay; Erdener Prälat; Erdener Treppchen; Graacher Himmelreich; Ürziger Würzgarten; Wehlener Sonnenuhr

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The preview of the VDP Grosses Gewächs new releases in Wiesbaden – the annual tasting of these dry, single-site wines – must be amongst the best organised in the world. The airy, bright space of the Kurhaus is an ideal tasting space, but it’s the flawless organisation that makes the tasting so special.

Over three days, international press and trade tasted 426 of the 635 GGs to be released this year, comprised of 264 Rieslings, 81 Spätburgunders, 43 Grauburgunders, Weissburgunders and Chardonnays, 21 Silvaners, 14 Lembergers, 2 Frühburgunders, and one Roter Traminer.

Scroll down to see Anne’s 24 Grosses Gewächs recommendations

German dry Riesling 2017 vintage review

Picking just 12 of those 264 Rieslings to recommend is hard: the sheer stylistic and regional breadth of world-class Rieslings was overwhelming.

The Germans have a phrase: ‘die Qual der Wahl’ – the torment of having to choose – hence the focus on internationally distributed Rieslings from classic regions, and lesser known but equally historic sites.

After another challenging year like 2017 it becomes increasingly clear that there are no more poor but increasingly different vintages, which should be cause for joy.

However, the quality tasted comes at the cost of yield, reduced by either frost, hail or stringent selection.

While a damp spring in 2016 spelled huge disease pressure, in 2017 the growers had to contend with spring frosts after an unusually early bud break, followed by some dry stress and finally fruit damage caused by heavy downpours and hail in August.

What is clear is that neither intense canopy management nor intimate knowledge of sites have much effect without super-responsive and decisive logistics with the requisite manpower.

Peter Jakob Kühn, biodynamic pioneer of the Rheingau, says it all when he notes that his usual harvest team of 25 swelled to 40 in 2017. ‘Selection was everything’, he says, ‘after a hailstorm on 1 August following a season of very balanced sun and precipitation.’

Kühn, who releases his wines after an additional year of barrel ageing, faced significant losses in 2017 but still considers it ‘a great vintage.’

Wilhelm Weil of Robert Weil, who has 29 vintages under his belt in the Rheingau, agrees.

‘2017 might be one of the best vintages of my professional life. We have very dense, deep, firm wines. Even if there were some losses, some sites gave grandiose wines,’ he says.

Weil’s winemaker, Christian Engel, reckons that the 2017s will be ‘marathon runners due to their acid structure and density. They will be fun even in decades to come.’

Frost also hit the Mosel, yet fine acidity and density are apparent here too.

Further south in the Pfalz, Mathieu Kaufmann at Reichsrat von Buhl reaches a similar conclusion to Engel.

‘The 2016 Rieslings were perhaps a little more elegant, fruity and precise, but 2017 comes with powerful wines. These are really great, great wines; 2017 has power – they are of a different structure and they will take their time.’

As in previous years, the Nahe showed itself as a hotbed of talent, while the large and diverse region of Rheinhessen holds so much joy.

Considering all of the above, and taking into account the additional expense and time required for steep-slope viticulture – which includes many of these GGs – it makes the prices seem ridiculously low, especially in an international context. Those who love Riesling and have patience are thus well advised to stock up on the 2017 GGs.

German Pinot Noir 2016 vintage review

Making a choice of twelve outstanding Spätburgunders [German Pinot Noir] was more difficult. While the VDP advised that 635 VDP Grosses Gewächs covering 309 sites were produced in this current release (2017 whites / 2016 reds), many decided not to show their latest wines.

Since every GG can only be shown in Wiesbaden once upon its release, there were instead some late releases from previous vintages. While this prevents us from having a complete overview of 2016, it’s a move to be welcomed as these library wines have more time to come into their own – and it’s something we will probably see more of in the coming years.

Nonetheless, the 2016s that were presented had shrugged off the challenging conditions of the vintage, which had left winemakers worrying about mildew throughout a damp spring and early summer, followed by brief heat spikes.

The tide turned in late summer and those who selected scrupulously prevailed, showing that not even a tough ride like 2016 can deter them from achieving superior elegance.

Not everyone fared so well – perhaps another reason numbers on show were down – but this is where we can separate the wheat from the chaff.

Marc Adeneuer of JJ Adeneuer in the Ahr says of the 2016 Spätburgunders: ‘full ripeness, great acidity structure, ripe generosity but still mineral: I think it’s a grandiose vintage comparable to 2009. We had the luxury of having very healthy fruit that didn’t need much selection.’

Yquem Viehhauser of Weingut Bernhard Huber in Baden emphasises the ‘exacting’ and ‘intense’ work necessary in the vineyard in a season that ‘presented many surprises.’ But she also notes a ‘happy ending’ for the 2016 Pinot Noirs which have ‘precise elegance, fine-fruited acidity and lots of juiciness.’ She add that ‘2016 unites the freshness and coolness of 2014 with the fruit and generosity of 2015.’

Sebastian Fürst of Weingut Rudolf Fürst recalls the 18% loss in yield dealt by the late spring frost, however he also cites ‘near perfect conditions’ during the ‘crucial time’ in August.

‘I see 2016 as a great vintage with full ripeness and freshness of very fine, red berry fruit,’ he says. ‘While frost reduced our yields, it perhaps is also a reason for the great concentration. It’s one of my absolutely favourite vintages.’

Those who value elegance above sheer power will love the 2016 Spätburgunders.

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Riesling has an extraordinary capacity to age, but how far can you push the best wines? Anne Krebiehl MW tastes a top vintage of the early 19th century at Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan...

Germany wasn’t a unified nation and its first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, hadn’t even been born when historic Pfalz estate Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan was harvesting one of its best vintages.

This 1811 Riesling from the estate’s Forster Ungeheuer vineyard was tasted on Sunday night in the village of Deidesheim (26 August) to mark the producer’s 300^th anniversary.

The colour was…

…amber; the nose at first had a hint of smoke which then opened into notions of lanoline, beeswax, lifted citrus and white truffle.The palate was fresh-faced, friendly, just off-dry and, incredibly, still had almost juicy playfulness, verve and impeccable balance. That it was 207 years old left us speechless.

This Riesling dates to the year when the future King George IV was made Prince Regent and Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility was first published.

The rarity had been donated by Jana Seeger, owner of the estate, from her private cellar along with other rare vintages from the three local estates into which the original Jordan holdings had been split in 1849.

Three vintages of each Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan; Reichsrat von Buhl and von Winning, covering 1988, 1979, 1967, 1953 and 1925, were tasted before the 1811 was presented.

All the other historic wines were Riesling Auslesen, Beerenauslesen and Trockenbeerenauslesen from single sites at various stages of development. This made the freshness and pristine nature of the relatively dry 1811 all the more astonishing.

Gunther Hauck, Bassermann-Jordan’s managing director, quoted from the 2011 harvest book of Ludwig Andreas Jordan: ‘Not since 1783 has such a splendid wine been obtained as in this year,’ he said at the time.

It had been an unusually early vintage with flowering completed in May and the entire harvest ‘fully ripe’ by 8 September, according to the record.

Due to the Great Comet of 1811, visible in the night sky for 260 days, both vintage and wine became known as Kometenjahrgang and Kometenwein – ‘Comet wines’ – respectively.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe immortalised the ‘comet wine’ in his poetry collection West-östlicher Divan. Later in the 19th century, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck was believed to have been partial to the wine of this vintage.

Sadly, it’s unlikely to be seen at many tasting events. Hauck said, ‘I’m sure tasting such a wine is a once in a lifetime experience.’

He added the 1811 wine had been regularly re-corked, although there had been no additions other than top-ups from one bottle of the same wine which had been sulphured.

Two bottles were used at the tasting and the last eight remain at the estate.

The Ungeheuer vineyard in the village of Forst, first documented in 1699 and classified as top site in the Bavarian tax classification of 1828, is today classified as Grosse Lage and exquisite dry Rieslings are still grown there.

Are any of these in your cellar?

Top wines from our dry German Riesling ‘Grosses Gewächs’ panel tasting earlier this year

Decanter’s long-standing consultant editor reports on a re-visiting of the fabled Judgement of Paris, as well as recommending fine wines for drinking now and others to lay down.

Re-visiting the Judgement of Paris

A dinner held at London wine club 67 Pall Mall, hosted by Alan Davies under the theme ‘Revisting the 1976 Judgement of Paris’, produced a stunning range of wines.

As aperitif, an elegantly fresh Schramsberg, Blanc de Blancs NV preceded a rich…

J Schram 2000 of great complexity.With the lobster thermidor pot pie came four magnificent Chardonnays:

• El Molino, Rutherford 2001 still very much there;
• Mayacamas, Mt Veeder 2007 showing its high-elevation origins;
• Aubert, CIX Vineyard, Sonoma Coast 2012 elegantly crafted;
• and Hanzell, Ambassador’s 1953 Vineyard, Sonoma 2013 with great precision and grip.

To match fillet of venison and haggis dauphinoise, a superb range of Cabernets appeared, all but one from the 1976 tasting:

• Mayacamas 1971 still fragrant and firm;
• Clos du Val, Stags Leap District 1972, whose rich colour belied the vintage, fruit and tannins in perfect harmony – the wine of the night;
• Heitz, Martha’s Vineyard, Oakville 1970 with dense colour and mint flavours;
• Ridge, Monte Bello, Santa Cruz 1984 with a great future;
• then Mouton Rothschild 1970 and Haut-Brion 1970, this time the latter taking the palm.

With cheese, Cain Five, Spring Mountain 1994 and Diamond Creek, Calistoga 1994 added to Napa’s reputation.

Fine wines for the cellar: Weingut Bercher

Weingut Bercher, based in the Kaiserstuhl village of Burkheim south of Baden, between the Rhine river and the Black Forest, can look back on 10 generations of winemaking since Franz-Michael Bercher built the cellar in 1756.

The estate’s primarily volcanic soil is planted to Chardonnay, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) in two of Burkheim’s VDP Erste Lage (premier cru) and three Grosse Lage (grand cru), producing wines of the highest quality.

While the whites were excellent, the reds were even more impressive.

As in Burgundy, three levels of wine are offered, beginning with a characterful QbA Burkheimer village wine.

The Erste Lage Sasbacher Limburg 2014 had great clarity and depth (92/100, £27.60, The Wine Barn).

The Grosse Lage Feuerberg Kesselberg 2015 stood out for its full colour, pronounced florality on the nose and a very fine expression of velvety-textured fruit on the palate – a wine of great purity and presence that reminded me of a top premier cru Vosne-Romanée, with a decade or two in front of it from 2020 (95, £46.20, The Wine Barn – or 40 euros from the winery’s own website). Another German Spätburgunder with star status.

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