German wines are increasing in popularity both for whites and reds. Above all, it is riesling and spätburgunder (pinot noir) that drive the development and it’s all about dry wines. More and more people are abandoning the old, residually sweet “prädikat” wines and instead choose internationally viable dry wines. Germany has copied the classification from Burgundy and classify the wines as Gutswein, Ortswein, Erstes Gewächs and Grosses Gewächs. The top group, Grosses Gewächs (GG), is put on the market at the earliest in September of the year following harvest for riesling and two years after for spätburgunder. But BKWine Magazine’s Göran van den Brink has already tasted straight from the barrel and gives buying advice.
This is part of a series on German wines, and ,above all, a selection of quality German producers in five wine regions in Germany. This is the result of BKWine’s reporter Göran van den Brink’s big German tour in the summer of 2024, in six parts:
The series mainly focuses on some of the – according to the author – best producers in each region.
During a week we travelled around Rheingau, Nahe, Baden, Palatinate and Rheinhessen where we peeked into the cellars, talked to the winemakers and tasted vintage 2023 riesling and 2022 spätburgunder.
2022 was a good red wine year in Germany, with great wines in most places. 2023 was more challenging in many places with a hot summer and late rains.
You don’t want rain late, just before or during the harvest, because it increases the risk of rot in the vineyards. The producers who were able to handle this difficult situation in 2023 through hard work in the vineyard and at the sorting lines have, despite the challenges, in many cases made among their best wines ever. Less diligent producers have not made such good wines.
So unlike in 2019 when you could buy from almost any producer and get a good wine, you have to be a little more discerning in 2023.
Avoid the cheapest machine-harvested wines and bet instead on a quality producer with the VDP eagle on the bottle or why not one of the coming stars you can read about in the next sections of the article.
During this warm year, the very best wine has been made in slightly higher and cooler locations. An inch ahead of other districts, we have Nahe, a small district with cool winds, simply cool-climate riesling. Dönnhoff and Emrich Schönleber have made absolutely magical collections in 2023, from Gutswein to GG. If you combine spätburgunder 2022 and riesling 2023, we keep Rings from the Palatinate (Pfalz) and Thörle from Rheinhessen at the top. We found the most affordable wines in the Rheingau, at Jakob Jung and Johannes Leitz.
In the following instalments, these producers will be presented, including recommendations for the wines they made:
Rheingau:
- Jakob Jung, Erbach am Rhein
- Weingut Leitz, Rüdesheim am Rhein/Geisenheim
Nahe:
- Weingut Dönnhoff, Oberhausen an der Nahe
- Weingut Emrich Schönleber, Monzingen
Baden:
- Franz Keller, Oberbergen
- Bernhard Huber, Malterdingen
Palatinate/Pfalz:
- Bürklin-Wolf, Wachenheim
- Christmann, Gimmeldingen
- Rings, Freinsheim
- Seckinger, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Rheinhessen:
- Weingut Thörle, Saulheim
- Wittmann, Westhofen
- AdamsWein, Ingelheim
Read the next episode in the series here: Rheingau.
