This was a great year for German wines thanks to the excellence of the 2015 and 2016 vintages and their complimentary personalities. Those looking for crispness, elegance and subtlety of aroma in dry and off-dry whites are ideally served by the 2016 vintage. Those looking for more power and richness in dry and sweet whites than what is traditionally associated with German whites need look no further than 2015. This combination is fully reflected in our ranking of the Top 100 German Wines of 2017, which includes some of the best wines on earth from the Auslese designations but also many modestly priced and widely available wines, particularly those that fall in the Spätlese category.
The top five wines all rated 100 points and perfectly embody the characteristics that make German Auslese, Beerenauslese (BA) and Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) dessert wines from the riesling grape unique on Planet Wine. Although they are all tremendously concentrated with a honeyed sweetness, they are also low in alcohol and thanks to their high natural acidity have enormous energy and vitality. However, by no means is every German riesling Auslese, BA or TBA worthy of such an elevated rating, as those who followed our reports on Germany this year already know. What makes this handful of masterpieces so spectacular is their complexity and finesse, rather than sheer density or opulence.
Stuart Pigott tasting at Egon Müller-Scharzhof in Wiltingen, Mosel
We can’t imagine a more perfect expression of all these qualities than the Egon Müller-Scharzhof Scharzhofberger Riesling Mosel Trockenbeerenauslese 2015 from Wiltingen, our German Wine of the Year 2017. It has yet to be sold and is almost certainly destined for one of the auctions of the German VDP association of producers. Expect the price to top US$10,000 per bottle as collectors around the globe fight over the tiny production. Like his father before him, Egon Müller IV is one of the world’s established masters of sweet and dessert winemaking, something underlined by the fact that two other wines of his placed at No. 7 and No. 18.
The situation is rather similar for our No.3 in the list, the Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle Riesling Nahe Trockenbeerenauslese 2015 from Oberhausen, and our No.4 wine, the Maximin Grünhaus (von Schubert) Abtsberg Riesling Mosel Beerenauslese 2015 from Mertesdorf. These are also producers with long track records of producing spectacular riesling dessert wines. Decades of refining selective-harvesting and winemaking techniques lie behind them, and for this reason these results aren’t terribly surprising. In spite of that, we congratulate them on these achievements, because, as they well know, a great reputation is no substitute for determination and attention to detail.
This situation makes the success of the producers behind the No. 2 and No.5 wines, Carl Loewen in Leiwen, Mosel and Prinz in Hallgarten, Rheingau all the more astonishing, because they are rising stars and internationally these names are still only known to insiders. In addition to that, just a generation ago many experts looked down on these vineyard sites considering them incapable of producing first-class riesling wines! That didn’t stop the Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Mosel Beerenauslese 2015 from father and son team Karl Josef and Christopher Loewen and the Jungfer Riesling Rheingau Auslese Gold Cap 2015 from Fred Prinz getting 100 points. Look down through the Top 100 and you will find other examples of this such in the form of producers such as Harald Hexamer, Jakob Schneider and K.H. Schneider — all from the Nahe region.
Karl Josef Loewen of the Carl Loewen estate in Leiwen, Mosel
Not all German sweet wines have this kind of massive body and power. The riesling Spätlese category is the zone where concentration is married to a delicacy in a way that’s virtually unique in the world of wine. The best example of this we found was the breathtakingly vivid and intensely mineral Emrich-Schönleber Halenberg Riesling Spätlese 2016, which we rated 98 points and placed at No. 32. It’s here where no doubt some real comparatively good-value wines can be found, and a significant number of these are included in our Top 100 list.
Arguably, the most startling results in this Top 100 list are in the field of dry white wines. Turn the clock back 20 plus years, and any ranking like this would have been dominated by sweet rieslings with only a few dry wines at the bottom end. Things were already slowly changing then, and by a decade ago, many good to excellent dry rieslings were being made in Germany. However, the leading producers have continued making improvements in grape growing and winemaking and kept pushing the quality envelope. We were repeatedly stunned by the combination of concentration, intense minerality and impeccable balance of the best dry German rieslings we tasted this year. If 2015 is clearly the superior vintage in Germany for dessert wines, then the number of exciting dry wines from 2016 is considerably greater than in 2015.
Top of this group was our No. 9 wine, the Schäfer-Fröhlich Riesling Nahe Felseneck GG 2016 in Bockenau. Tim Fröhlich has been making exciting dry rieslings with mind-blowing mineral intensity for many years, but sometimes they were a bit too wild in their youth (it would often take a year or two of bottle age for the reduction to blow off). In 2016, Fröhlich’s dry rieslings are just wild enough and the 2016 Felseneck GG is literally breathtaking as a result.
Anyone who doubts that Germany can produce sensational dry whites should taste the abovementioned wine or one of the many other GGs that found a place in the Top 100. Here, the achievement of Keller in Flörsheim-Dalsheim, Rheinhessen, deserves a special mention, since three of Klaus Peter Keller’s dry rieslings placed as No. 20, No. 23 and No.29. The 2016 is probably the best vintage ever from this new star of dry German wine. Quantities of the dry wines are usually considerably greater than for the dessert wines.
Lastly, the appearance of a handful of red wines in the Top 100 for Germany, most prominently the sensational Heydenreich GG 2013, a spätburgunder (pinot noir) from Friedrich Becker in Schweigen, Pfalz, which comes in as No. 39 with 97 points, will come as a revelation to many. Germany has the third largest area in the world planted to this grape, and thanks to global warming, it now has a climate ideally suited to it. Watch this space! – Stuart Pigott, Contributing Editor
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