I’m excited for this, Miran. The more voices the better in my view.
I think there is some really great analysis of German wine coming out of the UK trade. Sebastian Thomas’s annual catalogs at Howard Ripley (all three of them, really, - pradikat, dry and Prum) are my primary source of information on the wines I can’t taste. The other large London merchants do something similar, although Sebastian’s expertise does not really have a parallel anywhere else as far as I can tell.
Alex
You are absolutely correct, Russell.
Since then, the combination of covid, my mother’s poor health and the fact that I work as a teacher full-time while simultaneously study at the university half-time, has made me humbly aware of the limitations both with regards to available time and money. You live and learn… All expenses need to come out of my teacher’s salary and all travelling and writing must come from my spare time. That has admittedly been a formidable challenge indeed.
However, as a consolation while I’m experimenting with my homepage, meanwhile you’ll be able to read not just about German Riesling but also receive impressions from Barolo & Barbaresco in Piedmont (if that’s your cup of tea) here:
And my limited take on the few Californian wineries I have happened to visit, here:
They won’t be timeley at all, but the price of admission is quite agreeable, I hope.
Andrew, you are too kind when blaming only John Gilman. I blame him as well. But I also blame Julia Harding at jancisrobinson.com, I blame Stephan Reinhardt at The Wine Advocate, I blame William Kelley while he was writing for Decanter, I blame Stuart Pigott at jamessuckling.com and most of all, I put the heaviest burden of blame on Max, Felix, Klaus, Julia and Klaus-Peter. What they are doing in the vineyards, the work they put in (and the soil they are blessed with), are the reasons why winemakers from wineries like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Coche-Dury are friends who call the Keller family to ask if they could please swap wines. Much more so than whatever wine reviewers happen to write about their wines and whatever a nobody like me happen to think about the wines of Keller.
However, one of the very reasons for THE RIESLING REPORT is to acknowledge that while Weingut Keller is a beacon of light in time of darkness, there are so MANY interesting wineries out there in the German wine landscape, just waiting to be discovered. By you. And I for one, have the audacity to try playing a small part in spreading the knowledge of German wine.
Finally, Alex…I completely agree. The more, the merrier. ![[good.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f84c5acc11486ee4baba6dee6cf61dbd133abb18.gif "thumbsup"){kind=small}
Wasn’t there a publication years ago called the Riesling Report?
Yes, the old one was done around 1999-2003 by Kirk Wille (now head of Loosen Bros.) and Peter Liem…you might have heard of him, too. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Ok…
I was genuinely looking forward to reading some of your reports, but it appears you are only helicoptering at the moment. ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Please do let us know when your first report is ready, and I will definitely check it out.
That’s the one (not the one linked above). Old issues used to be available online. I was a subscriber and was interviewed for an article about drinking aged riesling.
I wonder if i can find the issues saved on my computer…
Paul, I’m spending my last days with school work but after that, I’ll be helicoptering aroiund, searching for that landing spot big enough for the rotor blades… 
To continue on my One Man Crusade to elevate the quality of professional wine reviewing, by actually visiting in person (as opposed to just kicking back while waiting for the pallets of free sample bottles to arrive), I believe you get a completely different understanding of a winery. Not just the fermented grape juice taken out of context, but also the estate itself, its history, the winemaker and the characters that pass by and might be a big part of a wine’s production, although they might not be displayed on the label. Most often family members because most estates are run as small-scale family wineries. I mean, as an example, do you like the wines of Willi Schaefer from Mosel? Have you by any chance seen their harvest picking crew? That would make you smile and actually add to the feeling of drinking their wines. I feel that arriving with a notebook, pencil and a camera (in my case also a tape recorder), is the best way to really learn about a winery. At least that will be the common theme of my little hobby project.
To give you a quick preview (I won’t charge you USD 2000 for it…), here are some wineries I can already now recommend you to check out if you happen to come across a bottle of their wines. Just look at a region like Rheinhessen - it’s not only about a certain Weingut Keller (who makes agreeable wines…) but there are young talents emerging in many places, in no small part thanks to the aforementioned winemaker, who together with his wife Julia, serves as an important nursery for young, passionate winemakers, who want to chisel out great wines of their own. Like Weingut Bischel, where Christian and Matthias are at the helm. So fun to taste with Matthias and look at their lineup… Just the very fact that they produce…SCHEUREBE…is an indication that they are on the right track. 
Racy, spicy and not trickling down your throut but rather splashing in cascades. The Rieslings are all lovely and precise and lookie-lookie, what fun it is to taste straight Chardonnay, something I have been nagging about for 10+ years now to a certain winemaker from Flörsheim-Dalsheim. Boots on the ground, it’s as simple as that.
Or…as Robert Dentice has been nagging about them until he’s blue in the mouth…Wasenhaus from Baden. I was wondering why Robert kept talking about them and now I know. What I like with the Pinot noir from Wasenhaus is the purezza in the fruit. Really no additives, just pure, crushed fruit. Not to mention their humble approach. And…I would say that the best is yet to come, given the old vines they are about to work with… So in some parts, still a work in progress. But with a bright future. My tasting notes will be from barrel tasting only but I hope to be able to return soon to give you the latest updates. And more photos.
