German Grosses Gewächs 2023 releases: the top wines

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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