The Man from Mosel River

Riesling vineyards in Olewig, Trier

The wine magazine – Weinwelt (Aug./Sept. edition) – I picked up at Frankfurt Airport when leaving Germany in August carried an article on the best Riesling wines in 2007.

About 1.500 wines were entered into this tasting and the overall winner (with 93 points) was

● Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan, Pfalz wine region with a
‘2007 Auf der Mauer Riesling QbA, dry’

Among the top seven wines were 4 from Pfalz, one from Austria, one from Rheinhessen and one from Franconia. For someone like me, a native of the Mosel, it is devastating that no wine from my home region was among the best seven.

Another Riesling competition in Bingen/Rhein in July had a record entry of almost 2,000 wines (1,937 to be exact) from 754 producers from almost all wine producing regions in Germany and from Austria, Canada, Australia, Luxembourg, France, USA, and New Zealand. Most of the non-European Riesling wines came (surprise), of course, from Australia.

The show is conducted every two years and 160 judges of an international jury assesses wines according to the international wine bureau (OIV) standards. The full report of this tasting can be found on www.riesling.de under the rubric “best of Riesling 2008”. In the category “dry Riesling wines”, the winner came from the Rheingau wine region:

● Weingut W.J. Schaefer in Hochheim for the
‘2007 Hochheimer Kirchenstueck Spaetlese’.

Number 2 came from the Mosel:

● Weingut Frank Brohl, Puenderich for the
‘2007 Puendericher Nonnengarten Spaetlese’

and from Pfalz,

● Weingut Emil Zimmermann in Wachenheim for the
‘2007 Wachenheimer Koenigswingert Spaetlese’.

In the “semi-dry Riesling category” wines from Rheinhessen, Mosel and Nahe could be found among the three top wines. However, the “sweet wine category” was dominated by Mosel wines.

There will be many more shows and wine tastings in the coming months. In July this year, when we tasted the 2007 vintage at Van Volxem Winery (Wiltingen, Saar), the “grand cru” wines were not yet presented because their release was scheduled for fall.

Given the fact that most wineries have not yet officially released their “gand cru” or, as the Germans say, “grosse Gewaechse”-wines, we will witness great quality Riesling wines of the 2007 vintage hitting the market later this year. That’s what I call wonderful prospects for us wine lovers.

My favorite Riesling from the Saar

PS: From October 14-18, 2008 the 2008 Canberra International Riesling Challenge will be conducted. For the first time in the history of the event, the number of entries has surpassed 500 wines (506 total entries), with a record number from Germany (99 entries). Let us see what the outcome may be.