2021 German Vintage Report - Whats old is new...(UPDATED FOR VOM BODEN TOUR HIGHLIGHTS)

[WilliamS]

… At home, I love to drink Kabinett trocken (e.g., Munny or Egon), but it’s not for everyone…

Hi Lars,
Which vintage Munny/Egon do you drink at home? I should think that it will be years before the 2021 is approachable, but you know that better than most.
I haven’t had the pleasure to taste this year’ Wines, but despite that, I ordered a case of Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett Trocken AP 1 “Mutter Anna” and a few bottles of Ober Schäferhaus Spätlese Trocken “Lorenz Manni”. Maybe I should order some “Munny” and “Egon” too while I still can?

[WilliamS]

I tasted ~300 fresh rieslings in Mythos Mosel weekend (+ a couple of days of random tastings) and I strongly co-sign that the vintage is at best for slim & playful kabinetts and maybe even more for spätleses. Sugar levels and alcohol-%s are very low (7-8 abv-% with 40-60 g sugars) which has been quite rare in recent years making also spätleses highly drinkable! however while sweeter (or even not so sweet) wines are clocking constantly over 10 … up to 13g(!) of acidity some tolerance is needed but I would say the wines handled high acidity quite well and while lineups had some green stuff as mentioned earlier I found big part surprisingly elegant esp. given the nature of the vintage. Even in dry area. In general the ripeness across the board is about the same only very early pickers have had in last vintages so if you have liked wines from say Max Kilburg, A.J. Adam, Julian Haart & Ludes (killer '21s btw.) you can pretty much buy without tasting and be very satisfied about the profile. Ain’t no downgraded auslese-level kabinetts in 2021 . I did prioritize to taste collections of smaller estates so I don’t know if it’s worth to do any lists because most of them are not available outside of Europe but I would say the vintage has some very fine wines to offer (still) in very modest prices and I’m sure heavy hitters like Lieser, Haag & co perform really well in kabi/späts too! There are also new kabinetts coming from parcels that have usually used to high end dry / sweeter wines what’s kinda cool too. What was also nice to see, probably due to low yields, was that even the “simple” estate wines were really good in most parts and drank wayyy over their price tags so please be sure to check them also.

Such a relief to hear! I have ordered bottles and cases from just Max Kilburg, A.J. Adam and Julian Haart, mostly trockens, some kabinetts but even a few bottles of Julian’s spätlese on the hunch that the acidity would make it less sweet tasting; all without having sampled any of the 2021s, relying solely on their prowess and adeptness! (Max being the youngest and least experienced in a difficult year is the one I am most concerned about.)

13+ grams of acidity per liter is… unbelievable! I thought the 10+ grams of Hofgut Falkenstein was mind boggling, but that is just mind blowing!!! This vintage is going to widen my perspectives considerably. Following the development of these rieslings over the coming years and decades will be remarkable.

[Lars_Carlberg]

… At home, I love to drink Kabinett trocken (e.g., Munny or Egon), but it’s not for everyone…

Hi Lars,
Which vintage Munny/Egon do you drink at home? I should think that it will be years before the 2021 is approachable, but you know that better than most.
I haven’t had the pleasure to taste this year’ Wines, but despite that, I ordered a case of Niedermenniger Herrenberg Kabinett Trocken AP 1 “Mutter Anna” and a few bottles of Ober Schäferhaus Spätlese Trocken “Lorenz Manni”. Maybe I should order some “Munny” and “Egon” too while I still can?

Hi William, I drink 2021 Munny, Egon, and Mutter Anna at home. These are steely and need time to open up. The 2021 Ober Schäfershaus is tops.

[John_Glas]

2021 Donnhoff’s are wonderful. CellarTracker! Donnhoff Tasting

[Brian_S_t_o_t_t_e_r]

MFW sending out their next issue tomorrow, with Part 1 of their vintage report.

[Hans-Peter_Eisele]

I’d strongly concur to the assessment that 2021 is a vintage for Spätleses (which even by contemporary standards sometimes veer into light Auslese territory, really, but can be stellar) rather than for Kabinetts. Good examples notwithstanding, ripeness at the Kabinett level was sometimes too marginal and acidity levels just too high for proper balance. It’s not just the numeric values (which are impressive), it’s the entire feel of the wines that has shifted. Very interesting from an academic perspective, but not really joie de vivre, I’m afraid.

I’ve just opened the MFW issue, and what do I read in their Section “2021 Vintage - The Buying Guide” (no cantankerousness intended, really)?

@Mosel Fine Wines

While there are many mesmerizing Kabinett, the full magic happens at Spätlese level!
All eyes have been on Kabinett in recent years, and there are also some truly great Kabinett in 2021. But this is often at the expense of other
categories. Here we would like to draw your attention to the so unique Spätlese, a truly shunned category, but which more than delivered in 2021, as the additional touch of ripeness allowed it in order to have a residual sugar / acidity couple often close to perfection!

Everything else they write, e.g. the hybrid character of “old-school lightness plus modern-day fruit”, is exactly true. Remarkably, MFW, too, relate the structure of the 2021’s to something from the early 90s. I had done so, too, but when chatting with my producers in the Mosel about that, they replied “mmh, more like the 1960s even”. Until I realized that we have a three-point-six roentgen situation here: that’s how far their living memory reaches. Like Bordeaux, due to climate change Germany’s Northern wine regions are entering a phase of “either the year is very hot, either the year crap and extremely hard work in the vineyard is needed to save what can be saved, with wines being the result that were never made before”. And as Paula wrote in the Keller thread, prices will have to go up significantly to accommodate the new risk profile these changed climate patterns inevitably entail. Else the required efforts just can’t be sustained.

Note MFW’s praise of Auslesen (which really can be extremely good and, at the starred/goldcap level, will be legendary in 30 or so years IMO), but with the proviso of very high acidity. Also, they recommend considering backfilling with previous vintages.

MFW also write:

Already now, some of these wines are candidates for wine perfection. While stylistically, the result may vary from a tad ripe to slightly underripe in terms of flavors and from intense to less intense in term of texture, most of these wines will offer grandiose drinking pleasure in a few years (…)

Look, we all love our Mosel Rieslings, but this statement can (and IMO should) be read with a frown: “slightly underripe”, “less intense in term(s) of texture” (which is really alarming!), and, most importanty, the beginnig of the sentence: “already now”. I’ve had Kabinetts of the the olden days (from before the 90s) drunk with 30 or so years, and… there’s a reason why the Song of the Mosel is sung by what was even then full Spätleses and starred Ausleses! Get your 2021 Kabinetts, enjoy them now over summer, but don’t wait for the 13 grams of acidity to resolve with bottle maturation. It. Will. Not. Happen. Enjoying Riesling is not about showing off to your neighbor that you can take the acidity like a real man.

MFW also point out how this vintage (again, just like in Bordeaux) re-established the hierarchy of vineyards. This confirms my experience so far that producer portfolios are far from the homogeneity they enjoyed in the past ten or so years and to which we have grown very accustomed. One of my favorite producers made, to my taste, the best Wehlener Sonnenuhr wines ever, but their Brauneberg wines are underwhelming (and more in line with vintage expectations), even though this is not shared by many other reviewers. 2021 truly is a vinate like no other vintage before. Beware of buying blindly, or you won’t get out of 2021 what you love.

Cheers,
HPE

[JohanS]

I’d strongly concur to the assessment that 2021 is a vintage for Spätleses (which even by contemporary standards sometimes veer into light Auslese territory, really, but can be stellar) rather than for Kabinetts. Good examples notwithstanding, ripeness at the Kabinett level was sometimes too marginal and acidity levels just too high for proper balance. It’s not just the numeric values (which are impressive), it’s the entire feel of the wines that has shifted. Very interesting from an academic perspective, but not really joie de vivre, I’m afraid.

I’ve just opened the MFW issue, and what do I read in their Section “2021 Vintage - The Buying Guide” (no cantankerousness intended, really)?

@Mosel Fine Wines

While there are many mesmerizing Kabinett, the full magic happens at Spätlese level!
All eyes have been on Kabinett in recent years, and there are also some truly great Kabinett in 2021. But this is often at the expense of other
categories. Here we would like to draw your attention to the so unique Spätlese, a truly shunned category, but which more than delivered in 2021, as the additional touch of ripeness allowed it in order to have a residual sugar / acidity couple often close to perfection!

Everything else they write, e.g. the hybrid character of “old-school lightness plus modern-day fruit”, is exactly true. Remarkably, MFW, too, relate the structure of the 2021’s to something from the early 90s. I had done so, too, but when chatting with my producers in the Mosel about that, they replied “mmh, more like the 1960s even”. Until I realized that we have a three-point-six roentgen situation here: that’s how far their living memory reaches.

It’s been quite a while when I have seen 76° Oechsles mentioned in MFW vintage report. Actually it has never happened as these are true old school Saar values right there .

[Hans-Peter_Eisele]

It’s been quite a while when I have seen 76° Oechsles mentioned in MFW vintage report. Actually it has never happened as these are true old school Saar values right there .

These 76° Oe used to be the legal limit for a Spätlese in M-S-R.

[JohanS]

It’s been quite a while when I have seen 76° Oechsles mentioned in MFW vintage report. Actually it has never happened as these are true old school Saar values right there .

These 76° Oe used to be the legal limit for a Spätlese in M-S-R.

It would be actually great if the wine would have labelled as a spätlese . But yeah in theory you can make and label wine as a kabinett if sugars are over 70° Oe but in recent vintages where kabinetts have been produced from closer to 90° Oe grapes 76 is very, very low! Btw. I have drank the wine in question and it’s really good. I would have never guessed oeschle-levels so low.

[Robert_Dentice]

I’d strongly concur to the assessment that 2021 is a vintage for Spätleses (which even by contemporary standards sometimes veer into light Auslese territory, really, but can be stellar) rather than for Kabinetts. Good examples notwithstanding, ripeness at the Kabinett level was sometimes too marginal and acidity levels just too high for proper balance. It’s not just the numeric values (which are impressive), it’s the entire feel of the wines that has shifted. Very interesting from an academic perspective, but not really joie de vivre, I’m afraid.

I’ve just opened the MFW issue, and what do I read in their Section “2021 Vintage - The Buying Guide” (no cantankerousness intended, really)?

@Mosel Fine Wines

While there are many mesmerizing Kabinett, the full magic happens at Spätlese level!
All eyes have been on Kabinett in recent years, and there are also some truly great Kabinett in 2021. But this is often at the expense of other
categories. Here we would like to draw your attention to the so unique Spätlese, a truly shunned category, but which more than delivered in 2021, as the additional touch of ripeness allowed it in order to have a residual sugar / acidity couple often close to perfection!

Everything else they write, e.g. the hybrid character of “old-school lightness plus modern-day fruit”, is exactly true. Remarkably, MFW, too, relate the structure of the 2021’s to something from the early 90s. I had done so, too, but when chatting with my producers in the Mosel about that, they replied “mmh, more like the 1960s even”. Until I realized that we have a three-point-six roentgen situation here: that’s how far their living memory reaches. Like Bordeaux, due to climate change Germany’s Northern wine regions are entering a phase of “either the year is very hot, either the year crap and extremely hard work in the vineyard is needed to save what can be saved, with wines being the result that were never made before”. And as Paula wrote in the Keller thread, prices will have to go up significantly to accommodate the new risk profile these changed climate patterns inevitably entail. Else the required efforts just can’t be sustained.

Note MFW’s praise of Auslesen (which really can be extremely good and, at the starred/goldcap level, will be legendary in 30 or so years IMO), but with the proviso of very high acidity. Also, they recommend considering backfilling with previous vintages.

MFW also write:

Already now, some of these wines are candidates for wine perfection. While stylistically, the result may vary from a tad ripe to slightly underripe in terms of flavors and from intense to less intense in term of texture, most of these wines will offer grandiose drinking pleasure in a few years (…)

Look, we all love our Mosel Rieslings, but this statement can (and IMO should) be read with a frown: “slightly underripe”, “less intense in term(s) of texture” (which is really alarming!), and, most importanty, the beginnig of the sentence: “already now”. I’ve had Kabinetts of the the olden days (from before the 90s) drunk with 30 or so years, and… there’s a reason why the Song of the Mosel is sung by what was even then full Spätleses and starred Ausleses! Get your 2021 Kabinetts, enjoy them now over summer, but don’t wait for the 13 grams of acidity to resolve with bottle maturation. It. Will. Not. Happen. Enjoying Riesling is not about showing off to your neighbor that you can take the acidity like a real man.

MFW also point out how this vintage (again, just like in Bordeaux) re-established the hierarchy of vineyards. This confirms my experience so far that producer portfolios are far from the homogeneity they enjoyed in the past ten or so years and to which we have grown very accustomed. One of my favorite producers made, to my taste, the best Wehlener Sonnenuhr wines ever, but their Brauneberg wines are underwhelming (and more in line with vintage expectations), even though this is not shared by many other reviewers. 2021 truly is a vinate like no other vintage before. Beware of buying blindly, or you won’t get out of 2021 what you love.

Cheers,
HPE

Yeah I read that as well, first thing this morning. Excited to see that and look forward to tasting them soon!

[Hans-Peter_Eisele]

Looking foward to hearing from your tasting experience, Robert!

[crickey]

Second this as well. I feel like I’ll just stick to Willi Schaefer and Merkelbach Kabis from the Skurnik offer for now. Kind of tempted to grab a bottle of 1995 Merkelbach Urz Wurz Kabi for fun.

Very good scores for Willi Schaefer in the latest MFW.

[Brian_S_t_o_t_t_e_r]

Second this as well. I feel like I’ll just stick to Willi Schaefer and Merkelbach Kabis from the Skurnik offer for now. Kind of tempted to grab a bottle of 1995 Merkelbach Urz Wurz Kabi for fun.

Very good scores for Willi Schaefer in the latest MFW.

I’ll be diving in as soon as I get to work

[Brian_S_t_o_t_t_e_r]

I’d strongly concur to the assessment that 2021 is a vintage for Spätleses (which even by contemporary standards sometimes veer into light Auslese territory, really, but can be stellar) rather than for Kabinetts. Good examples notwithstanding, ripeness at the Kabinett level was sometimes too marginal and acidity levels just too high for proper balance. It’s not just the numeric values (which are impressive), it’s the entire feel of the wines that has shifted. Very interesting from an academic perspective, but not really joie de vivre, I’m afraid.

I’ve just opened the MFW issue, and what do I read in their Section “2021 Vintage - The Buying Guide” (no cantankerousness intended, really)?

@Mosel Fine Wines

While there are many mesmerizing Kabinett, the full magic happens at Spätlese level!
All eyes have been on Kabinett in recent years, and there are also some truly great Kabinett in 2021. But this is often at the expense of other
categories. Here we would like to draw your attention to the so unique Spätlese, a truly shunned category, but which more than delivered in 2021, as the additional touch of ripeness allowed it in order to have a residual sugar / acidity couple often close to perfection!

Everything else they write, e.g. the hybrid character of “old-school lightness plus modern-day fruit”, is exactly true. Remarkably, MFW, too, relate the structure of the 2021’s to something from the early 90s. I had done so, too, but when chatting with my producers in the Mosel about that, they replied “mmh, more like the 1960s even”. Until I realized that we have a three-point-six roentgen situation here: that’s how far their living memory reaches. Like Bordeaux, due to climate change Germany’s Northern wine regions are entering a phase of “either the year is very hot, either the year crap and extremely hard work in the vineyard is needed to save what can be saved, with wines being the result that were never made before”. And as Paula wrote in the Keller thread, prices will have to go up significantly to accommodate the new risk profile these changed climate patterns inevitably entail. Else the required efforts just can’t be sustained.

Note MFW’s praise of Auslesen (which really can be extremely good and, at the starred/goldcap level, will be legendary in 30 or so years IMO), but with the proviso of very high acidity. Also, they recommend considering backfilling with previous vintages.

MFW also write:

Already now, some of these wines are candidates for wine perfection. While stylistically, the result may vary from a tad ripe to slightly underripe in terms of flavors and from intense to less intense in term of texture, most of these wines will offer grandiose drinking pleasure in a few years (…)

Look, we all love our Mosel Rieslings, but this statement can (and IMO should) be read with a frown: “slightly underripe”, “less intense in term(s) of texture” (which is really alarming!), and, most importanty, the beginnig of the sentence: “already now”. I’ve had Kabinetts of the the olden days (from before the 90s) drunk with 30 or so years, and… there’s a reason why the Song of the Mosel is sung by what was even then full Spätleses and starred Ausleses! Get your 2021 Kabinetts, enjoy them now over summer, but don’t wait for the 13 grams of acidity to resolve with bottle maturation. It. Will. Not. Happen. Enjoying Riesling is not about showing off to your neighbor that you can take the acidity like a real man.

MFW also point out how this vintage (again, just like in Bordeaux) re-established the hierarchy of vineyards. This confirms my experience so far that producer portfolios are far from the homogeneity they enjoyed in the past ten or so years and to which we have grown very accustomed. One of my favorite producers made, to my taste, the best Wehlener Sonnenuhr wines ever, but their Brauneberg wines are underwhelming (and more in line with vintage expectations), even though this is not shared by many other reviewers. 2021 truly is a vinate like no other vintage before. Beware of buying blindly, or you won’t get out of 2021 what you love.

Cheers,
HPE

Thanks for your insights Hans-Peter. If you don’t mind me asking, which producer are you referring to that was so divergent in Wehlener Sonnenuhr vs. Brauneberg wines?

While initially excited about many of the kabinett this vintage not coming off like spätlese or auslese in disguise, I think I’ll likely buy more spätlese this vintage than I was expecting. Who knows when we’ll see another vintage again when they don’t start picking until mid-October. I find my palate aligns pretty closely to Jean & David’s.

[Russell_Faulkner]

This year will be an early harvest.

Obviously, since they moved the auctions back to mid September.

[J_Rock]

Also, they recommend considering backfilling with previous vintages.


Cheers,
HPE

I took this to mean they recommended backfilling if you’re interested in the estate/entry level wines as such wines in the 2021 vintage are often underripe/subpar as they are made from the lower tier vineyards that didn’t excel/ripen like they did in other recent vintages.

[matthias_h]

Second this as well. I feel like I’ll just stick to Willi Schaefer and Merkelbach Kabis from the Skurnik offer for now. Kind of tempted to grab a bottle of 1995 Merkelbach Urz Wurz Kabi for fun.

Very good scores for Willi Schaefer in the latest MFW.

I’ll be diving in as soon as I get to work

Made my day !

And did exactly that, with the exception of placing an order of willi schaefer spats right away before work …

[J_Rock]

Ever since I heard about the nice acidity of this vintage, I’ve been thinking of focusing on Spatlese (and above), and this MFW issue seems to support my thoughts. Not only do I prefer the “fruity” and sweet wines in general, my favorite thing about Riesling is the tension between sweetness and acidity. So, when that acidity is higher and a Oe lower, I like to move up the Pradikat ladder to find that great contrast between sweetness (and ripe fruit) and electric acidity. I’m especially excited for Schloss Lieser’s wines as I love how the typical power of their wines pairs with electrifying acidity.

[Hans-Peter_Eisele]

Brian,

that producer in question is Max. Ferd. Richter. I’m a huge fan of their BJ/BJSU normally, but in 2021 WSU rules supreme at Casa Richter. To my taste, their WSUs outperfom their BJSUs at every level by at least 2-3 points. MFW see them at the same level, as do other folks I’ve spoken too, so I’m the minority report here, apparently.

The reson I much prefer the WSU is that it manages to develop so much more clarity and brilliance, it’s almost a liquid crystal (that’s the 2021 acidity at work right there, folks!), with beautifully tropical aromatics (that’s the modern fruit expression) even at Kabinett level, whereas BJ/BJU remains a bit veiled, and pushes a bit too much the apple/pear theme (which I can live with, but prefer not to if given the choice). Remarkably, these differences persist across the entire prädikat range, from Kabinett to AL** - put the two wines next to each other, you’ll always recover BJ/BJSU. So yes, 2021 is about “terroir”, but no, 2021 is not excellent: in a really good year, BJ/BJSU doesn’t display this aromatic spectrum, it “merely” displays more minerality and somewhat less fruit. It would appear that Brauneberg is less blessed than Wehlen…

Kabinetts: In my book, Kabinett WSU consistently outperforms BJ Fuder 4 Kabinett, but the respective 2021 versions could be the best ever made - if the whopping acidity works out. (I’m not buying.)

Spätleses: The WSU SL is stellar (yet a light AL, due to the somewhat higher sugar, and with perceivable sweetness in the aftertaste), I’m surprised MFW didn’t go for 97 points -their ratings are often way too much on the high side to my taste (and they don’t do peer group)-, and I certainly believe that the BJSU SL is significantly weaker, there’s less aromatic interest and less definition (but dryish aftertaste here too). I’m inclined to give the WSU SL a whopping 94-96 points (certainly in 20 years), while the BJSU SL is maybe at 91-93 if it generates more complexity with bottle age. We had both SL next to each other, and WSU mopped the floor with BJSU, it was cruel.

On a side note, Elisenberg SL is very nicely done, too, very different in profile from WSU (obviously, the soils are completely different, so slate-induced spiciness is absent), with slightly less complexity apparent, but beautifully juicy, lots of substance, dryish aftertaste, this is proper Spätlese, you just want to drown yourself in this. That wine, too, I rate higher than BJSU SL, 93-94 points, possibly more with bottle age (it’s really not far behind WSU). That said, Elisenberg is very consistently producing fabulous Spätleses, it’s really a special place, so this is just more of the same. If you’ve liked it so far, you’ll also like it this year.

Starred Ausleses: The WSU AL*** is indeed “mind-blowingly great” (MFW), these are real 95-97 points in my book, and I’m very, very conservative with points. The botrytis is extremely clean. Awesome, epic, legendary stuff - but you have to wait a couple of decades (if you have a kid born in this year, this is where you want to go for 750’s; if you’re older than 50, live long and prosper…). But very, very sweet, so really more BA level than AL. MFW’s assessment of the BJSU AL*** as LGK is workable, there seems to be more botrytis here than in the WSU counterpart, but very clean, too. Here, the rating is slightly on the high side for me, I gave 93-94. I’d rather spend my money on the WSU SL.

Note: I drank the wines, so had the benefit of seeing the bottle evolve over some time.

HTH & Cheers,
HPE

[Hans-Peter_Eisele]

Also, they recommend considering backfilling with previous vintages.

I took this to mean they recommended backfilling if you’re interested in the estate/entry level wines as such wines in the 2021 vintage are often underripe/subpar as they are made from the lower tier vineyards that didn’t excel/ripen like they did in other recent vintages.

Yes. But if 2021 were so exceedingly excellent as some people have us believe, this wouldn’t be an issue, right? One can’t look at the top wines of the Top 10 producers and judge a vintage by how they fare. Try this in any wine region, and you lose tons of money.