What’s 2020 trocken/GG German riesling looking like?

In looking at the vintage reports this seems to be a nice vintage for elegant and featherweight wines. I just took a look through MFW Issue 58, and my impression is that aside from a couple producers (Falkenstein and Lauer in particular) that the reviewers seem underwhelmed by the dry wines of the vintage. Anyone on the boards here who tasted through a lot of the dry wines who could provide their opinions, especially now with the GGs starting to come to market?

Crickets?

Haven’t tasted any yet, other than the Keller VdF.

At least in the US, many of the GGs haven’t arrived yet, so it is tough to say as of now. MFW also didn’t review many of the dry wines I purchase, so it’s hard to get a sense of how they’ve performed.

Am tasting the 2020 E-S Halgans tonight to start getting a better sense of the vintage though.

First few arrived last week. Not opened one yet.
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Overall good vintage.
Hard to stand next to 2016- 19.
Most 21 will be junk.
My recom: Try out…and buy 19.
My 2 cts.

Take this page and try the online translator. This is the best source for an GG 2020 overview. The GG’s usual notions for private wine lovers were cancelled again this year due to Corona.

I think I have a bottle of E-S Mineral in the queue to open within the next few weeks. A few other dry wines haven’t arrived yet.

I wish I took notes or paid more attention, but I had 1 or 2 2020 dry Rieslings at Riesling Study on Sunday and they were great. Not as light as I was expecting (my expectation was set when I had a 2020 Fritz Haag Kabinett that was very light and lovely) and already quite approachable with the acidity in check.

When I initially read the Mosel Fine Wines 2020 preview, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this vintage compared to others, but based on the few 2020s I’ve had so far, I’m excited to buy plenty of 2020s.

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FIfy

Maybe i’ m wrong, but most stuff i tasted fell short in comparison with former years, esp. 2019.
But what do i know🙄
I’m no pro. champagne.gif

"What’s 2020 trocken/GG German Riesling looking like?"

Sweet. That’s what it’s looking like.

sorry, could not resist [cheers.gif]

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I tasted extensively in the Mosel and I like 2020 very much. It was interesting that many estates were still showing 2018s because they have a lot of them. In my opinion 19 and 20 are not radically different. I would say 19 is universally good and 20 is a bit more producer by producer. I like 20 and 19 much better than 18 because of the acid / lower ripeness.

I think 20 is a good vintage to load up on the mid-level dry wines from top producers because yields overall were down in 20 and will most likely be down again in 21.

Stephen has some comments in his vintage report here:

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Stephan Reinhardt’s first 2020 report came out today. It was a bit of a grab-bag, but it had a focus on trocken and GGs from different regions. In general, he thought the 2020 GGs were a success. As the article Robert pointed to in the post above, Reinhardt thought the the Nahe dry wines particularly succeeded.

Certainly not a lot, but I had two very pleasant wines recently. I’ve had neither of these wines in other vintages so can’t compare to past performance. Each was tasted over about three nights.

2020 Falkenstein Neidermenniger Herrenberg #1 “Mutter Anna” was absolutely awesome. Searing acidity and great length. Both citrus and savory, and by night two it seemed to be very well balanced, if still laser sharp. Really excellent.
2020 Falkenstein Neidermenniger Sonnenberg #9 “Munny” was very good, but not nearly as good right now. Again searing acidity but the fruit never filled in to buffer in the way it did for the NH Mutter Anna. I’m loathe to be too harsh as I had a slight cold which might have amplified the acidity or muted fruit.

I was in Germany a few weeks ago and tasted a few minor Rheinhessen producers. To me the mid-levels seemed more enjoyable. It may seem silly to extrapolate from this but it was pretty clear to me the quality of the dry 2019s are far superior to 2020. Stick to producers you know can handle lower acid vintages for 2020.

This is an absolutely insanely stupid comment.

Calling a vintage junk before it is even picked. First off you can’t make blanket vintage statements about an entire country as large as Germany. Second I just spent over two weeks in the Mosel and many growers are extremely excited about 2020. I have been talking to growers since I left and things have only gotten better.

For sure some have struggled with rot and will have lower yields and a challenging vintage but they were in the minority.

I will bet on the hardest working growers in the world to come through in a challenging vintage.

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fingers crossed for a year where the wines are good but maybe a little less money due to how good the last few vintages have been. not that im super upset with most German wine prices, with the exception of a rare few.

Definitely have seen 20s offered at a slight discount to 19s. But most of those places are secondary pricing. If you are getting close to direct pricing it’s basically the same.

Prices don’t change in Euros, generally.