The greatness we expect from Dönnhoff and outstanding wines from Karsten Peter at Gut Hermannsberg. (Continue reading here.)
The greatness we expect from Dönnhoff and outstanding wines from Karsten Peter at Gut Hermannsberg. (Continue reading here.)
Excellent wines from two estates that are too often overlooked when searching for top quality Nahe wines. (Continue reading here.)
Two of Germany’s great producers face off in a great vintage. What more could one want? (Continue reading here.)
Wines from one of Germany’s more obscure regions. (Continue reading here.)
More disappointments from the western Rheingau, with Prinz and Künstler as exceptions. (Continue reading here.)
With the exception of Johannishof, a very disappointing set of wines. (Continue reading here.)
As noted previously, many Rheingau estates are holding back their GG’s an extra year before release, so this set is entirely from 2020. (Continue reading here.)
In addition to the wines below, I tasted 2020 Hohenrain and 2020 Siegelsberg from Jacob Jung, but the wines were not representative of the quality I know from long experience to expect from Jung, and so I suspect that they were not representative and I am not reviewing them here. (Continue reading here.)
Again, a mixture of 2020 and 2021 vintages. (Continue reading here.)
In contrast to the Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer, where all the GG’s shown were 2021, an increasing number of Rheingau producers are holding their wines back for an extra year of aging, and so many of the new-release GG’s are from 2020. (Continue reading here.)
From the end of the Mosel, just before it empties into the Rhine, some unexpected unevenness in these wines. (Continue reading here.)
Clemens BUSCH
I can’t recall ever having had a disappointing wine from Clemens Busch, so these wines are no surprise. We’ve moved to the Lower Mosel, and so richer, more powerful wines than those in the Mittle Mosel. (Continue reading here.)
Notable in this group is the Josephshöfer, completely different from the 2020, which I found troubling. (Continue reading here.)
The late Wilhelm Haag’s sons Olivier and Thomas face off in a comparison of their outstanding wines. (Continue reading here.)
The uniform quality continues with the Piesport wines. (Continue reading here.)
Here we begin the journey down the Mosel River with good offerings from two outstanding producers. (Continue reading here.)
Von Schubert has great 2021s, and Karthäuserhof’s outstanding 2020 sets the table for its 2021 to be released next year. (Continue reading here.)
This is the last batch of the great 2021 Saar GG’s for now, but surely more will be shown next year. (Continue reading here.)
As with the previous group, the strength of Saar wines is apparent, but also inexplicable disappointment. (Continue reading here.)
The Saar is full of great wines in 2021, but for reasons I am currently unable to explain, there are also some disappointments. (Continue reading here.)
Finishing the 2020 and 2021 Silvaner GG’s, all showing the same high level of quality. (Continue reading here.)
More wines from Franken, where Silvaner can achieve a quality unmatched anywhere else in the world. (Continue reading here.)
Before we get to the Rieslings, I’ll start with Silvaner GG’s that were presented at the Wiesbaden tasting. Here, too, the 2021 vintage was very successful, as was the 2020 vintage. (Continue reading here.)
For the prior three days, I have been tasting Grosses Gewächs wines at the annual preview put on by the VDP, the group composed of many of the most elite wine estates in Germany; the wines will be released to the public on September 1. This was the 21st annual tasting of the wines, and I am privileged to have attended 19 of them (because of COVID restrictions, I could not enter Germany in 2020 and there was another tasting that I missed in the early 2000s). (Continue reading here.)
2020 Muscadets continue to impress at all price levels -- fortunately because 2021 was largely wiped out in the region. Other 2020 Loire whites seem to be less consistent. (Continue reading here.)
This is a high-quality, traditional estate in the village of Barolo that is not flashy and thus doesn’t receive as much mention as some, but is worth your while running down. (Continue reading here.)
Some unevenness in this selection, but there is quality to be had for not all that much money compared to Côte d'Or wines. (Continue reading here.)
Interesting wines that can be found for not much money. My first experience with this producer.
Whites: (Continue reading here.)
2019 is the second vintage since Thomas Farge took over making of the wines from his father.
Whites: (Continue reading here.)
Nothing much to say by way of introduction — great wines from what Stuart Pigott called the world’s greatest white wine estate, one that has never gone through a down period, with which I whole-heartedly agree. Another great vintage here. (Continue reading here).