Weekly Tasting Report (March 1-7, 2021): Germany's 'perfect' 2019 vintage continues
Stuart Pigott returned on March 1 as Senior Editor for JamesSuckling.com and immediately discovered a sensational new German 2019 wine, while James continued tasting hundreds of wines last week including a great Solaia from Antinori, and some rich Sauternes.
If you’ve never heard of a winery called Gunther Steinmetz, we suggest you look it up. And you should also check out all the other wines – more than 500 of them – we rated last week in Hong Kong and Germany.
Senior Editor Stuart Pigott in Germany just rated the Günther Steinmetz Riesling Mosel Neumagener Rosengartchen Von Den Terrassen 2019 a perfect 100 points. I don’t normally give this information away in a report but Stuart said that it’s “only the 4th vintage of this wine, but it hits the bulls-eye slap dab in the middle!” I had to share. And the winery made a handful of other 95-plus wines in this report.
Stuart first met Stefan Steinmetz, 42, of the Günther Steinmetz estate in Brauneberg/Mosel just over a decade ago and his wines were already very good then with a distinctive style. But he said that nothing prepared him for the recent tastings of the Steinmetz 2019s. He was blown away by the quality. Stefan and his American wife are extreme viticulturalists, cultivating vineyards that most others would simply turn down because of all the hard work. For example, to get to the vineyard that gave that 100-pointer, they need to walk half a kilometer through the forest, then climb down through treacherous, narrow vineyard terraces that are more suitable terrain for mountain goats than human beings!
However, despite noting the continued improvement, the quality of the mind-blowing Steinmetz 2019s came as a surprise. Yes, the 2019 Neumagener Rosengärtchen Von den Terrassen, a super-concentrated and super-precise dry Mosel riesling, deserves a special mention because it rated a perfect 100 points, but an equally significant achievement are the 13 wines that rated 95 plus last week.
Stefan and Sammie Steinmetz created a perfect wine, thanks to their willingness to tackle vineyard sites few others would.
There are no fewer than 140 German wines in this report from Herr Pigott and he continues to bang the drum for what he describes as the greatest German vintage of his career (and mine for that matter) – 2019. Check out his report on the vintage from late last year as well as his Top 100 German wines of 2020, which is heavily ladened with 2019 rieslings.
Also, don’t miss the mention of some new releases of slightly older vintages of one of Stuart’s and my long-time favorite producers, Dr. Loosen. I still remember in the late 1980s and early 1990s staying with Stuart in his apartment in Bernkastel on the Mosel and tasting hundreds of German wines for The Wine Spectator. We spent many nights “tasting” old vintages of Dr Loosen with owner Ernie Loosen. His wines have always impressed.
Besides all the highly rated German wines, we also rated the new releases of Antinori’s Tignanello, Guado al Tasso and Solaia. All are from the 2018 vintage and they have a calming subtlety, freshness and balance that highlights the cooler nature of the growing seasons, especially compared to the dry and hot 2017. The sophistication and harmony of the wines is very impressive and the wines have a real attraction and drinkability from the agility and fine tannin structure of these popular superstar Tuscan reds.
We also rated almost 50 Barolos, most from the ripe yet fresh 2017 vintage that produced ripe and structured nebbiolos. I continue to be surprised and happy with the balance and energy in the 2017 Barolos. And it a pleasure to see a ripe year that remains vivid and energetic. Most producers say this was due to the cool temperatures at night following hot and dry days.
Argentine malbecs are also taking a lot of our time each week and we are finding many top wines with four wines receiving 95 points. They are from four different vintages too: 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017, highlighting how Argentina has had four excellent vintages in a row. I am not sure yet which year is the best but it looks like it will be either 2018 or 2019. Stay tuned as always.
We also have some suggestive wines from France in this report. The most interesting are from Bordeaux. The 2018 Chateau Suduiraut shows that through a hell of a lot of work in the vineyards, some wineries were able to make exceptional sweet wines despite the small development of noble rot due to the hot and dry weather from June onwards. I also tasted a handful of minor wine estates’ barrel samples from 2020 and I was pleasantly surprised. I spoke to winemaker Stephane Derenoncourt, who is a consulting enologist for dozens of top names in the region, and he is very excited about the quality of Bordeaux’s newest vintage. He says that the reds are fresher and brighter than the excellent 2018s, which I posted a report on last week with almost 1,300 tasting notes and ratings. I will start tasting serious barrel samples in April.
This is one of our biggest weekly reports ever. So there’s got to be something in here for you.
– James Suckling, editor
The list of wines below are bottles tasted and rated in the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet in the market, but entering soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.
Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score, and alphabetically by winery name, and can search for specific wines in the search bar.