1972 vintage guide for Germany

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In common with much of the rest of Europe this was a poor vintage, producing unremarkable wines

1/5

Weather Conditions

The year started well with an ideal budding but from there on everything went wrong. The flowering was spoiled by cool weather and rain in May and June. A changeable summer with many cold and rainy days delayed the start of the ripening process and then slowed down the build up of the must weights. From the end of September until the 18th October there was mainly sunny autumn weather (with light frosts on the 6th October). On the 18th October a heavy frost destroyed the leaves and thereby any further ripening of the grapes.

Best Appellations

In the Pfalz and Rheinhessen lower acidity levels made some wines quite good to drink relatively young, as it is always a little warmer than further north in the Rheingau, Nahe and Mosel/Saar/Ruwer.

Best Producers

The Riesling grown on steep vineyards gave a few Kabinett quality wines but most wines had to be chaptalised. The acidity levels were extremely high which did allow some wines, such as Egon Muller’s Scharzhofberger QbA to become quite pleasant to drink in their old age.