Andrew Jefford: 'What struck me was the creativity of Germany’s younger winemakers'

Reach age 35 and you’re out. Time to quit. You’re past it; too old. This is Germany’s Generation Riesling – a group for young growers, founded in 2006 (initially to challenge outdated perceptions of Germany in the UK market).

In early summer 2026, I visited six Generation Riesling domains. Young, I discovered, is simultaneously old: the newest domain was run by the third generation of the same family, the oldest by the 13th generation. Not only that, but a toddler was on hand to lend anarchic fun to the welcome at four of the wineries, and at least one of the winemakers was visibly pregnant (with her second child) – the following generation is on the way. It all felt very fecund – and consequently joyful.

By self-selection, of course: any domain with no new faces at the helm wouldn’t qualify. Germany has succession issues, too. The nation lost 1,300ha of vines in 2025, and wine sales in supermarkets (where Germans buy most of their wines) dropped by 7% during the same 12 months.

The price of bulk Rheinhessen Riesling, said Pauline Baumberger of the eponymous Nahe domain (which only sells bottled wine, all natural, under the Glow Glow label) was 80 cents/litre, well below cost price. ‘It’s really tough. For many older farmers, vines were supposed to provide their retirement income.’

In Mandel, the Baumbergers’ village, they say there were once 500ha of vines; only 110ha remain.

What struck me was the creativity of Germany’s younger winemakers. While it’s true that most of the country’s finest wines are still made with Riesling, this is more often Generation Try Anything: 15 different varieties are grown at Bastianshauser Hof in the Rheinhessen; 18 at Victoria Bretz’s winery in the same region; while Laura Weber in the Nahe grows 17.

Every winery I visited offered sparkling wine, whites, reds (blends included) and pink wines; many had natural wines, orange wines and wines made from new disease-resistant (Piwi) varieties, too.

The creativity went into overdrive for the non-alcoholic alternatives: in the Nahe, Forster produces a grape-based kombucha with carrot, tea and lemon mint, while the Baumberger family makes a blend of grape juice and verjus with lemon-balm and wormwood tea and lacto-fermented raspberry juice. (Crafted originals of this sort don’t suffer from the ‘hollow middle’ that makes so many dealcoholised wines a disappointment.)

I’d expected diversity in the Rheinhessen, Germany’s largest wine region, where rolling hills, low-stress loess and clay soils and mixed agriculture predispose growers to ingenuity; it was, though, a surprise in the Nahe, where the slopes are steeper, yields are lower and the climate is still cool.

A talented newcomer such as Laura Weber produces polished classics (notably Rieslings from the Monziger Halenberg and Frühlingplätzchen vineyards), but her 44-strong list also includes Sauvignon Gris, Bacchus and a ‘Surprise’ blend of Sauvignon and Scheurebe (see below), as well as Dornfelder, Frühburgunder and Spätburgunder (the estate’s oldest vines are now Pinot Noir). Not everything the youngsters attempt is successful, but you’ll never be bored in the New Germany.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with France. Germany may have lost 1,300ha in 2025, but France has almost 28,000ha earmarked for grubbing up this year.

Yes, you can be creative with grape varieties, blends and wine styles in France – but only at the expense of losing your right to appellation status, and often with it origin and identity. Creativity means ‘demotion’ to IGP or Vin de France status.

I don’t know a single Languedoc domain with 86 different wines on offer, as the Bretz family in Rheinhessen’s Bechtolsheim has – nor one that could manage to make quite such a good living from wines which sell at less than €10 a bottle.

The Generation Riesling lessons: don’t throttle your youngsters with rules, or poison them with tradition. Imagination tastes good, too.

In my glass this month

I loved Laura Weber’s Nahe Riesling classics, but since we’re saluting imagination let me describe her Duo Surprise No1 Trocken 2025.

There’s no point in making a blend unless each variety plays a role and the result is unique. Here, Scheurebe brings haunting grapefruit and rose aromas; Sauvignon Blanc then brings its lively vegetal wealth to a poised 12.5% palate, which is in turn lifted further by the Scheurebe perfumes. Perfect late-summer drinking.

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