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Great German Riesling 2005: Conclusion

Despite a chronic under-appreciation in many quarters, Germany remains one of the greatest wine producing nations there is. The fact that fickle fashion has told us all that these off-dry and perhaps overtly sweet wines are passé only serves to keep Germany, at present at least, a well kept secret which only you, I, and a few hundred thousand other imbibers share. Rest assured that if German wine was more widely appreciated, prices for the greatest wines - from the likes of JJ Prüm, Fritz Haag, Ernie Loosen, Maximin Grünhaüser and so on - would be far higher, as they were in the past. Look back to the price lists of a century or two ago, when many drinkers preferred the sweeter style, and we find fine German Rieslings beating first growth claret hands down in the price stakes.

Desperate to regain such accolade, and acutely aware of the ill-informed preference for dry, dry, dry, many German winemakers have started turning out more and more trocken wines; Riesling fermented to a full, fruity, alcoholic dryness, much more in the Alsace (which isn't that far from Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, of course) vein than the fine, filigree delicacy that is more commonly associated with the Teutonic style. All well and good; many such wines are fine, although as my tastings over the last few weeks have shown, many do not match up to their more traditional equivalents when intrinsic quality is examined. All in my humble opinion, of course, but the traditional style of German Riesling is an internationally recognised type, appreciated by many, and I fret a little when I think of the possibility of trocken styles overwhelming these great but unfashionable wines.

I would not like to see Germany's great estates throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I hope to be able to continue to purchase delightful, ageworthy Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese wines from my favourite producers for decades to come. Prices may rise a little as more wine drinkers cotton on to the new German style, but with any luck perhaps this will apply more to the trocken wines than the traditional. I hope so. In the meantime I will continue to stock up, taking advantage of the many excellent vintages Germany has enjoyed in the last fifteen years. I can only suggest you do the same. The recently released 2004 vintage is as good a place to start as any, but shop around, as there are still plenty of 2001-2003 wines available as well, especially from specialist merchants such as Howard Ripley. (15/9/05)

Great German Riesling 2005 feature summary: