Given the attitude of the medical profession towarsd alcohol, the Royal College of Nursing seemed an unlikely location for a tasting in London of top Rieslings from the 2023 vintage in Germany, as well as some cuvées of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but Sebastian Thomas of Howard Ripley who organized the event said to me, “well, you are spitting, not drinking.”

The tasting showcased dry wines, mostly Grosses Gewächs. This was an exceptionally difficult year as the growing season was marked by alternating heat and cold, and drought, rain, and hail. The best Rieslings are a wonderful throwback to a cooler era, bright, fresh, and linear.

I have a persistent problem with Grosses Gewächs, which is that the wines often are not really dry enough. The international standard for dry wine is less than 4g residual sugar per liter, but European regulations allow a wine to be labeled dry with up to 9g/liter sugar if it has high enough acidity. In my view, this is a mistake.

At less than 4g sugar, virtually no one can taste sweetness. Perception of sweetness becomes subjective at higher levels of residual sugar as not everyone perceives the balance of sugar to acidity the same way. I find that I can sense sweetness more often than not in Grosses Gewächs, which has mightily discouraged me from buying the wines.

I understand the argument, that if sugar is completely excluded the wines can have such piercing acidity as to be oppressive. But perhaps there should be two categories of supposedly dry wines: Absolutely Dry with less than 4g sugar, and Potentially Dry, with 4-9g sugar and appropriately high acidity.

The 2023 vintage is different (especially compareed with the trio of warm vintages, 2018, 2019, and 2020). All the wines seem absolutely dry, without any of the muddy suspicions of residual sugar of recent warm vintages. Acidity was certainly up there; if any of the wines were actually over 4g sugar, the acidity was high enough to hide it in this vintage. The style of the vintage tends towards crisp, but most of the wines are well rounded.

Tasting Notes

Weingut Peter Lauer
Schonfels, (Fass 11), Grosses Gewächs: Fine, taut, citric, almost mineral, rounding up and becoming silky on the finish. Dry but close to the edge. 90 Drink- 2032
Kupp, (Fass 18), Grosses Gewächs: Shows more acidity than Schonfels, making it livelier, but the citric edge makes it less silky, if more penetrating, and making it the most obviously Saar-like. 90 Drink- 2033
Feils, (Fass 13), Grosses Gewächs: Most flavorful at this point of the trio of Schonfels, Kupp, and Feils, with flavor variety extending from citrus to stone. Greater depth moves this in the direction of the Mosel. 91 Drink- 2032
Maximin Grünhaus
Herrenberg, Grosses Gewächs: Subtle nose has suggestions of citrus and stone fruits, crisp clean palate very much the Ruwer, the height of elegance. This is the one to start now. 91 Drink- 2032
Abtsberg, Grosses Gewächs: Higher acidity makes this more penetrating than Herrenberg, less approachable now but likely to have greater longevity. Citric flavors to the fore but good flavor variety developing. 91 Drink- 2032
Weingut Fritz Haag
Juffer, Grosses Gewächs: Citric and stone impressions to nose follow through to palate, showing a (formerly) typical cool year in the Mosel. Very clean pure impression. 91 Drink- 2032
Juffer-Sonnenuhr, Grosses Gewächs: More penetrating acidity than Juffer gives a crisper impression with greater persistence on the finish. Very much the same style as Juffer, but more intense. 92 Drink- 2034
Paulinshofberg, Grosses Gewächs: Smoother and rounder than Juffer or Juffer Brauneberger but less intensity and more obvious without quite the same sense of purity. 90 Drink- 2032
Weingut Schloss Lieser
Goldtröpfchen, Grosses Gewächs: Subtle, elegant nose leads into citric-tinged palate with touch of asperity at end. Seems rather undeveloped now, wait a year or so for flavor variety to emerge. 90 Drink- 2032
Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Grosses Gewächs: Smoother than Goldtröpfchen, silky palate shows citrus with hints of stone fruits, more elegant. 91 Drink- 2032
Niederberg Helden, Grosses Gewächs: As always, the least interesting of Schloss Lieser’s cuvées, with less flavor variety, not as smooth on the palate, a touch of asperity at the end. 89 Drink- 2032
Weingut Clemens Busch
Marienburg, Grosses Gewächs: Quite approachable for young Clemens Busch, citric impressions followed by some herbal notes, leading into a slight bitterness on the finish. 90 Drink- 2032
Marienburg, (Rothenpfad), Grosses Gewächs: Rothenpfad is smoother and rounder than the generic Marienburg, less obvious, you might even say a little restrained by comparison at this point, greater flavor variety already beginning to show. 91 Drink- 2034
Marienburg, (Falkenlay), Grosses Gewächs: Rounder than Marienburg or Rothenpfad, greater weight on the palate, a faint bitterness, not exactly more viscous but certainly an impression of greater presence. 92 Drink- 2034
Weingut Heymann-Löwenstein
Kirchberg, Grosses Gewäch: Penetrating acidity leads into herbal impressions which are broadening into flavor variety and persist retronasally. This is very much its own style. 90 Drink- 2032
Röttgen, Grosses Gewächs: More of a mainstream impression than Kirchberg, with similar acidity but less over herbal impressions, and the palate showing greater depth. 91 Drink- 2033
Weingut Schäfer-Fröhlich
Stromberg, Grosses Gewächs: Palate opens with really penetrating acidity, for a moment it is hard to get beyond it, than some more savory notes show on the finish. Quite citric and undeveloped, with notes of bitter lemon, this really needs time. 90 Drink- 2032
Felseneck, Grosses Gewächs: Penetrating acidity, citric and some savory impressions, but just a little broader and more approachable than Stromberg. 90 Drink- 2032
Weingut Dönnhoff
Dellchen, Grosses Gewächs: Very much the Donnhoff style, crisp, clean, pure, completely dry, lovely fruits are still largely in the background, needs time to develop. 92 Drink- 2034
Hermannshöhle, Grosses Gewächs: A little broader than Dellchen, lovely fruits still in the background, citrus to the fore but acidity not quite so obvious, stone fruits farther back. 92 Drink- 2034
Weingut Wagner-Stempel
Höllberg, Grosses Gewächs: Restrained slightly citric nose leading into some herbal impressions. Nice depth to palate with fresh acidity. 90 Drink- 2032
Heerkretz, Grosses Gewächs: Similar citric and herbal impressions to Höllberg but greater depth to the fruits pushing the acidity back a bit and making this more approachable. 91 Drink- 2032
Weingut Fritz Ekkehard Huff
Orbel: Citric acidity at the front but nicely rounded behind. The overall crisp impression of the vintage is softened by the fruits. 90 Drink- 2030
Schloss Schwabsburg, (Rabentum): A softer less obviously citric impression than Orbel, nice weight to the fruits, a little bitterness at the end, actually less elegant than Orbel. 90 Drink- 2030
Pettenthal: The roundest and softest of the Huff trio of Orbel, Nierstein, and Pettenthal. The elegance makes this more like the Mosel or Nahe, but it is still quite citric and a little bitter at the end. Less presence than Nierstein. 90 Drink- 2030
Kühling-Gillot
Hipping, Grosses Gewächs: Steely mineral impressions to nose follow to citric palate with smoky finish. Acidity nicely balanced by fruits. 91 Drink- 2032
Pettenthal, Grosses Gewächs: More depth and roundness than Hipping with minerality showing on finish as gunflint. This has full-fledged minerality compared to the hints in Hipping. 92 Drink- 2034
Weingut Knewitz
Goldberg: Some variety to the nose, nicely balanced citric impressions to palate, followed by some impressions of rounded fruits, bringing a softer finish. 90 Drink- 2032
Hundertgulden, Grosses Gewächs: A little deeper and rounder than Goldberg (difference between Grosses and Erstes Gewächs?), some savory notes showing on the finish give greater complexity. 91 Drink- 2034
Steinacker , Grosses Gewächs: Some savory mineral impressions to nose. Palate of Steinacker is distinctly more mineral-based compared to Goldberg or Hundertgulden, marking a significant difference in style. 92 Drink- 2034
Battenfeld-Spanier
Frauenberg, Grosses Gewächs: Intimations of minerality on citrus palate, similar style to Kühling-Gillot but just a touch less intense. Some bitterness at end. 90 Drink- 2034
Weingut Wittmann
Aulerde, Grosses Gewächs: Spicy impressions to nose follow to palate and from the cinnamon you might think there was oak. Persists to finish. 89 Drink- 2030
Kirchspiel, Grosses Gewächs: Cleaner purer impression than Aurlele with just faint hints of spice, but still a distinctly different style from, say, Mosel or Nahe. 90 Drink- 2030
Morstein, Grosses Gewächs: Crisp acidity, pure clean palate, a bit citric at the end makes this a little monotonic. I would say the vintage was not such a success for Wittmann. 90 Drink- 2030
Weingut Georg Mosbacher
Ungeheuer, Grosses Gewächs: Faintly mineral impression on nose lead into pleasantly citric palate with a little citric bite at end. Clean citric impression but needs time to develop flavor variety. 90 Drink- 2030
Jesuitengarten, Grosses Gewächs: More citric bite to palate than Ungeheuer, fruits behind haven’t really emerged yet, some impressions of spice at the end, but overall more impressions of complexity than Ungeheuer. 91 Drink- 2030
2022 Vintage
Weingut Peter Jakob Kühn
Doosberg, Grosses Gewächs: Penetrating acidity makes this eel more like Mosel but the weight on the palate identifies Rheingau. This is somewhat crisper than Peter Jakob Kühn’s usual style and is a marker for the style of the vintage. 90 Drink- 2030
Sankt Nickolaus, Grosses Gewächs: Similar impressions of minerality to Doosberg but rounder and deeper on the palate. Still on the mineral side, but truer to the Rheingau. 90 Drink- 2030