German Grosses Gewächs 2021 releases: the top wines

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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