Our German Wine of the Year for 2023 says everything about the enormous progress that the nation’s leading winemakers have made since the terroir movement began to gain traction there in the late 1990s, leading to the GG (Grosses Gewachs) dry single-vineyard wines of today. The Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Pechstein GC 2022 is a great masterpiece of mineral expression from one of the pioneers of terroir wines in Germany. Unusually, this producer prefers the abbreviation GC (which stands for Grand Cru) to GG, though this wine is a perfect GG.
It also brings us to a crucial aspect of all our top 100 lists: the minimum quantity for eligibility. For example, the Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Kirchenstück GC 2022 also rated a perfect 100, but the production quantity for this wine is a fraction the Pechstein GC 2022, so it did not make the cut.
And it is far from being alone. Many of the German wines that rated 99 or 100 points were produced in a quantity of a just a few hundred to a thousand bottles and therefore failed to make the list. Many other wines that rated 95 points or higher, but will only be sold through one of the wine auctions of Germany’s VDP producers’ association, were also excluded. They are difficult to obtain and often also produced in small quantities.
Those limitations made my job in making this selection a complex one, but the wines in the Top 10 positions were easy to spot. They are all truly exceptional expressions of German wine culture, and in line with the contemporary focus of the German wine industry, eight of them are dry or barely off-dry.
Some will wonder what the Keller Riesling Rheinhessen Brunnenhäuschen Abts E GG 2022 is doing in 15th place given the perfection of this wine and the stratospheric reputation of winemaker Klaus Peter Keller. It brings us to the third limiting factor in making our selections: price. It is the most expensive dry wine in this Top 100 and will set you back at least $400 or the equivalent. In contrast, the Nos. 2 to 11 wines should all be available for under $100, some of them for much less.
But let’s head back to the top of the list. In second place is an unusual wine that lies on the borderline between properly dry and barely off-dry – the spectacularly concentrated Emrich-Schönleber Riesling Nahe Halenberg R 2019, which was made from late-picked grapes. It underwent long barrel aging, then long bottle aging, before release. Just a hint of botrytis adds complexity to this great Nahe wine from the last truly great vintage in Germany.
Previous vintages of our No. 3 wine, the Carl Loewen Riesling Mosel Maximin Herrenberg GG 2022, were all very impressive, but this just leapt out at me when I tasted it at the winery during the summer. I immediately asked myself, “Is that a 100?“ Not quite, but it still has incredible finesse and precision, dancing over your palate in the way that only great Mosel wines can do.
The No. 4 wine, the Wittmann Riesling Rheinhessen Morstein GG 2022, is a very exciting vintage of this new classic of dry German riesling that has been a serious candidate for German Wine of the Year every vintage since 2018. The 2022 has an incredible brilliance, and this plus its terrific mineral intensity mean that it should age magnificently for decades.
The Kühling-Gillot Riesling Rheinhessen Rothenberg Wurzelecht 2022, in 5th position, is another strong argument for considering Rheinhessen as Germany’s premier region for dry white wines. Incredibly concentrated and structured, this dry riesling from ancient ingrafted vines has a room-filling charismatic personality.
Sixth place is taken by one of the most precise and subtle wines of the 2022 vintage in Germany, the Dönnhoff Riesling Nahe Hermannshöhle GG 2022. It was the star dry wine of an astonishing collection of 2022 riesling that Cornelius Donnhoff made. Anyone looking for German wines with a pronounced cool climate personality in spite of the very warm 2022 vintage should love this great beauty.
The 2019 vintage of our No. 7 wine was our the German Wine of the Year in 2020, because it marked the return of the legendary Schloss Johannisberg winery in the Rheingau to top form. The continuing magnificence of this estate’s wines is underlined by the noble elegance of the Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Rheingau Spätlese Grünlack 2022. Those who still think that sweet German riesling is thin and characterless should experience this dense and very extremely expressive masterpiece!
The super-refreshing and barely off-dry riesling Kabinett category was out of fashion for a long time, but when new winemaking ambition was applied to it about five years ago it leapt back into the limelight on the domestic and export markets. Our No. 8 German wine, the Willi Schaefer Riesling Mosel Graacher Domprobst Kabinett 2022, is a sensational example of this reinterpretation of a great German classic.
The No. 9 wine comes from well over 100-year-old vines just a couple of kilometers downstream on the Mosel from the Graacher Domprobst site and is more Mosel magic. The Selbach-Oster Riesling Mosel Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spätlese Feinherb Ur Alte Reben 2022 has a miraculous combination of intensity and delicacy, the balance barely off-dry. It is one of the best wines Johannes Selbach has produced in his entire career.
Our No. 10 German wine is a great achievement for the Riffel winery in the long forgotten northwest corner of Rheinhessen. With enormous determination and persistence, Erik and Carolin Riffel have been working at perfecting dry riesling from the Scharlachberg site, a long-forgotten grand cru. The Riffel Riesling Rheinhessen Scharlachberg Trocken 2022 was another wine that stopped me in my tracks. I hope that it does the same for you. It is an incredible bargain for such a high-end GG-type wine!
Don’t miss the slew of other exciting wines on this year’s Top 100 Wines of Germany list. The highest-placed red is the Chat Sauvage Pinot Noir Rheingau Lorch Schlossberg 2020 in 14th place, and in 20th position is the first non-riesling dry white, the Weedenborn Rheinhessen Grand Réserve 2020, a unique cuvee of sauvignon blanc and chardonnay!
– Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor
Note: The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated in 2023 by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
