Sarah,
Which vintage do you prefer, 2010 or 2011?
Do you drink more wines from the Pfalz and Rheinhessen or the Saar and Ruwer?
Thanks for the responses to my question.
2010 by a long margin. We drink a lot from the Rheinhessen. But for the record, I am not talking about just us. Most of our Riesling friends drink dry and prefer high acid.
In the end, for most of us, regardless of sugar preference, it’s about what we perceive as balance.
The omission of A.J. Adam for a second consecutive year in Terry Theise’s Germany vintage report is surprising. The 2018s from A.J. Adam are outstanding. At least Terry mentioned Willi Schaefer this year. I thought the 2017s from both estates were excellent.
Apologies for sounding like a broken record on this topic but you can’t take a country as large as Germany with so many varied regions, grapes and winemaking styles and easily lump it all into one simple vintage categorization.
The good news is that it is easier to take chances given the price points and the top winemakers rarely make bad wines.
OK. But what’s your solution? Fly over and taste everything? Is that realistic for anyone who isn’t you?
I wish I could taste every region every year but it is not possible.
My personal solution is to buy from a group of producers I love year in and year out and then add a bit more of certain things (e.g. regions or Pradikat) based on vintage. I find the Mosel Fine Wines report very helpful.
As I said earlier luckily German winemakers rarely make bad wines and the cost over the entry to mid level wines allow you to get a feel for the vintages without to much risk.
You do realize that your answer actually does more to support Terry’s report than refute it.
I agree with both points. I would have had no problem with buying tons of '12s and skipping '13 altogether. Many of the best dry wines seem to come from vintages with quite a bit of acidity, at least for my taste. Some of the '15s are mindblowing.
It’s good to see that Mosel Fine Wines also liked the 2018s from A.J. Adam and Willi Schaefer.
And Falkenstein. Oops. That’s not Terry’s. 
Lars, how is 2019 shaping up in the MSR? From what I’m seeing most places on the Continent, it’s been cool (aside from the heat spike) and growth is relatively late by recent standards. Are growers already expecting a later harvest or too early to tell?
Jayson: In early April, about a week before budbreak, it was looking like another very early harvest. By mid-May, that was no longer the case because the weather cooled down, including a late spring frost in the Saar region, which slowed things down. A lot can happen, but the harvest won’t be as early as last year. What we need is some rain, especially for the young vines.
In Trier, we had light rain this morning. But now we just had a hailstorm.
Is 2015 considered a more acidic year for German Riesling? I’ve been loving how electrically acidic a lot of the 2015s I’ve tried have been.
Fortunately, the hailstorm was only in Trier. I didn’t hear of any reports of hail damage to vineyards on the Saar and Mosel.
As for the start of the 2019 harvest, it might be as early as last year. It depends on the weather over the next several weeks and the strategy of the grower.
Yes.
As a follow-up to my previous post, there was hail damage in the Trier-Olewig vineyards.
It’s extremely hot here, with record-breaking temperatures across Germany.
So far, I’m finding that I like high acidity in my Rieslings, and I’d describe some of my favorites as electrifying. I’ve loved nearly all of the 15s I’ve had, especially Fritz Haag, Schloss Lieser, and Willi Schaefer.
I just had a 2018 Donnhoff Riesling Trocken and I (and my wife) thought the acidity was actually far too high. We found it searing, overpowering both the wine and food we tried to pair it with. I suspect that it just needs some time to calm down, but I’m not experienced enough yet to know for sure.
Speaking of which, can any of you kindly answer my question: even if a vintage is very acidic when it’s released, isn’t it true that eventually the acid in most Rieslings will mellow out?
I’ve you like Haag, Schaefer, lieser, etc (presumably the non dry as that’s most/all of what they make) I don’t find it surprising that you didn’t like the donnhoff basic trocken. I like those producers as well and I generally find basic trockens too harsh as they have neither the body/extract or residual sugar to balance the acidity. OTOH the basic donnhoff Riesling (non trocken) is usually more to my liking.
And just my opinion (after tasting German vintages on release for 20+ years), but I think it needs until October (so a year post harvest) for a vintage to sort itself out. I normally taste a large number of wines in June (including Dönnhoff), and find them to almost invariably be more approachable in October.
As for acid mellowing out, I don’t really believe that, except when wines start to take on very mature elements. It’s not because the acid changes, but more because the rest of elements balance the acids in a different way 20+ years into the life of a wine. Again - my opinion. Your mileage may vary.