Call this a One Man Crusade against sloppy reviewing of German wines, if you will…
Whenever I read about wine in discussion forums like this, it seems as if certain wine regions and types of wine draw most people’s interest. The classic wine regions Burgundy and Bordeaux for sure, followed by Barolo & Barbaresco and…everywhere, it seems…also Riesling. In particular German Riesling.
However, regular, TIMELY and extensive reviews of German Riesling seem to be an utopia. Like that magical unicorn no one will ever see. Why is that? I mean, it’s a popular grape among consumers, not to mention among winemakers of the world, yet the “professional” wine publications seems to be in sleep mode when it comes to do some proper ground work, with a boots-on-the-ground-approach. Meaning: to step into a pair of boots and actually make the effort to visit estates, taste their wines, talk to the winemakers and write up a report with impressions from the visit. Oh, and if you’re about to mention “covid”, I also include pre-covid times and what I fear will become post-covid times as well. My guess is that most wine reviewers will continue to follow the same pattern as they have done in the past:
“Please send me all of your wines for FREE, to me personally or to my office and I promise to open them, taste them and tell you what I think about them.”
That seems be the standard protocol of reviewing wines these days. Quite understandably during covid times but it was very much the case before and, I suspect, will continue also after. In my opinion, covid really hasn’t changed anything, and won’t in the future either. Wine reviewers assigned to a particular region taking photos of pallets (yes, pallets, not cases) of free sample bottles sent to their home or their office is, mostly, the norm. Or no, wait, there’s actually an alternative - a wine critic visiting a region, setting up a temporarily office at a location for two weeks and then asking winemakers to send their bottles to that location. Giddyup y’all winemakers and let’s begin the lottery, hoping that your wine won’t be number 114 and onwards of the bottles standing on the table for tasting that particular day.
Enter…THE RIESLING REPORT
This is by no means a solution to the problems discussed above. Not at all. Not even close. I’m alone. I have very limited resources, and I hardly have any spare time. It’s just a first framework, a beginning, an attempt to pursuel a fun little insignificant amateur project of mine and it will require patience from any reader. But if nothing else, it’s an attempt to show so called “professional” wine publications, that they can do a better job. Much better. How? By making a friendly wager, challenging any wine publication, with all their financial strength and vast resources, to do a better job of covering German wines from the 2021 vintage. If I fail and the professionals outcompete me with their excellent work, you can all laugh at me but we’ll still all be winners. If they in fact accept the wager and make sure they do a much better job, it’s a win-win. If my report is more timely and more extensive than the professional wine publications like The Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, Vinous, Jancis Robinson, etc, then it will be a friendly reminder that the money you all are paying them as subscribers, might not be invested in the most optimal way, at least not if you’re a fan of German Riesling. In that case, the question posed will be - "If I can, why can’t they?"
Admittedly, making an effort takes time. It requires stamina, passion and knowledge. And it will cost the professional wine publications…money. They will need to send someone out and cover the expenses of airfares, rental cars, fuel, insurances, lodging, food and salary. But again, that’s what you and I are paying them to do. For publications that have full-time wine critics, this should be no problem. Especially not if, like Vinous, you have a controversial “Preview subscription” that makes retailers fork out USD 24,000 per year to see their reviews 2 days before others. I mean, ten retailers and you have amassed close a whooping quarter of a million dollars. Surely some ground coverage could be etched out of that kind of money?
This is my friendly wager. The Riesling aficionados among you can follow it at your own will and become the final judges when the challenge is over next year. Why not for the current (2020) vintage?, you may ask. Because many travel restrictions are still in place and I haven’t even received the necessary vaccinations, so too many obstacles for now. But by this time next year, there should be loads of Riesling reviews published. Until then, I’ll play around with my amateur homepage and start preparing for the challenge by offering reports from previous vintages and visits (whenever I have time to write).
Meanwhile some thoughs and musings about…Riesling. What a magical grape this is. The electricity, the transparency, and the elegant lightness of being. In my humble opinion, people drinking Riesling are simply smarter, more successful and happier than others.
It’s a grape that seems to bring passionate people together. I have lost count on the many occasions when I have sent a mail and politely asked if it would be possible to visit an estate in California, Piedmont, Rhone, Stellenbosch, Barossa, you name it - only to receive a reply with exclamation points shouting out “You’re the Riesling guy! Welcome! When can we meet?” Somehow Riesling seems to have this hypnotic allure among international winemakers, wherever you travel. Not much unlike the KAVORKA of Kramer, in Seinfeld (the lure of the animal…). Same thing whenever I happen to pull out a bottle of Riesling that I have brought to a visit. There seems to be a sort of devotion, as winemakers calls out and gathers whoever happens to be around at the winery, with a “Folks, we are about to drink Riesling. Buckle up!”. In particular German Rieslings. Somehow, when bringing a bottle of Riesling while visiting other wineries around the world, it’s like you have a magical password for doors to be opened because everyone seems to recognise the unique sense of place this lovely grape offers its consumers.
Yet… It’s seems as if Riesling has been having a hard time among the professional wine publications. I cannot help thinking of the words by Oz Clarke’s excellent book on grapes, where he describes the Riesling grape like this. “I wonder what it feels like being the wine experts’ favourite grape, yet failing to excite the palates of the vast majority of drinkers across the world? Does it feel like as though you’re the class swot cooed over by teachers for your straight A’s in all your exams, yet when it comes to break-time you’re left shunned and alone at the edge of the playground as your more raucous colleagues cavort and shout and delight in each other’s company? It’s no good that the teacher comes by and tells you not to cry, that your time will come - because right now, no-one will play with you, however much you try to please them. And anyway, who says your time will come? Straight A’s and teacher approval is no guarantee of a successful and happy life. And I’m afraid that’s how it is with Riesling. In the German-speaking world, Riesling is lauded as the globe’s great white grape. A significant number of wine writers and experts elsewhere in Europe, and particularly in the UK, relentlessly repeat their view that Riesling is the greatest white grape in the world. Yet the world doesn’t get the message.”
By now, 20+ years have passed since those words were publised and I would argue that today the situation among consumers is a bit different. With wine bars popping up everywhere and people getting both more informed, sipping on a glass of Riesling is both a more common sight and above all, looks to be recognised as some of the highest Bang for the Buck around, when comparing to many other grape varietals. However, many professional wine publications appear to be trapped in a constant sleep mode when it comes to timely and extensive Riesling reports. It’s about time they stop hitting the snooze and get to work. Being passionate about Riesling, I’ve been contemplating from where I get my own information, aside from the traditional way I’ve been adhering to for 20+ years by now (= meaning, gathering impressions and forming my own opinion by simply travelling to the wine regions in person, knocking on producers’ doors and politely asking them if it would be possible to taste their wines - similarly to what most of you wine aficionados do, I’m sure). It strikes me that by far the best and most reliable and timely Riesling reviews on the market actually comes from non-professionals, like my friends Jean and David whose Mosel Fine Wines is nothing less than brilliant and uncomparable, with its limited region covered as the only drawback. Other great sources of information are from private wine aficionados, like Robert Dentice, Martin Zwick, the folks at RieslingKenner, etc.
The Jancis’ crew seem to form their opinions mostly from large importer tastings and wine fairs in London, as opposed to actually visiting the producers (with some exceptions). Stephan (The Wine Advocate) and Stuart (James Suckling) are actually living in Germany and should be the ones with the best and easiest access to winemakers - and they do visit winemakers in person. And then we have the American posse, David Schildknecht, John Gilman and Terry Theise, who all suffer from one common drawback. They all live across the big, blue pond, limiting their possibilities of visiting Europe on a regular basis (unless someone pays them to visit more often). For now, whenever they do drop us a visit here in the Old World, it’s often in the form of a single road trip per year, where they try to squeeze in as many producers as they can in a limited amount of time. This results in various drawbacks, either that only a limited set of reviews are shared or in some cases, a prolonged time before their impressions are actually published. But who knows, maybe next year will be a Renaissance of German wine reviews?
Thanks for listening.