When I traveled the Moselle region for a few days at the end of July this year, all the meadows along the Moselle were parched and brown, even dusty. It had not rained for six weeks and not significantly after that. The few drops that fell here and there evaporated in seconds on the hot ground. Exactly one year before, everything was still under water, not only on the Ahr, but also on the Moselle, which, however, deals with floods routinely and has long since attracted more media attention, which requires a veritable catastrophe like on the Ahr, where unfortunately dozens of people also drowned in the horrific floods. 2021 brought enormously high fungal pressure due to high humidity and summer temperatures. Peronospora was also a problem, reducing yields as well as the necessary selections of healthy, ripe berries in late fall. In contrast, one year later, in July and August 2022, irrigation will be used where irrigation facilities exist at all. Irrigation is not done to increase yields according to strict specifications but to keep the vines alive. The vineyards are the only green areas along the Moselle this summer anyway, while the trees are already shedding their leaves, mind you at the end of July! Normally, this process begins at the end of October. One may be afraid for the forests after so many years of dry heat since 2015; a single wet summer does not help. And the 2021 summer was indeed wet—in all German wine regions. In this report, the focus is on the 2020s again but also the first 2021s from the Moselle and some other regions along the Rhine, including the Nahe.

The 2021 harvest was very late, a good three weeks later than normal, and lasted on the Moselle from about mid-October to about mid-November, only the ice wines (Eiswein), if there were any, were harvested just before Christmas. However, there were no really high must weights in November, even Auslese wines were produced in comparatively small quantities and, if so, then rather in a lighter, drinkable style than as Beerenauslese in disguise. There was hardly any good botrytis; you had to look for these berries with a magnifying glass, but then you could actually find them. Higher predicates than Auslese—Beerenauslese, Eiswein or Trockenbeerenauslese—are even rarer, and when they do exist, the quantities are so small; but “unfortunately,” they are also fantastic in quality, so the prices, if the market controls them, threaten to become astronomically high. After all, the best high predicates are Rieslings to keep for several generations! There have not been comparably radiant, electrifying Rieslings for years, maybe decades. So far, among the high predicates, the 2021 TBAs from Fritz Haag, Dr. Hermann and Max Ferdinand Richter are at the top of the podium, even among the Auslesen. Wilhelm Weil is even convinced that he has pressed the best vintage of his career in 2021.

The acidity in 2021 is abnormally high and not for heavy minds or sensitive stomachs. Nonetheless, it does not stand in isolation but is counterbalanced by considerable extract levels at moderate alcohol levels. Above all, potassium and calcium buffer the analytically frighteningly high acids, which were reduced by precipitating tartar. Those who have hastily deacidified may soon run into problems: chemically deacidified wines will not age as well as natural wines, if they can age at all. There were other methods to cope with the acidity, even if the winegrowers were scared at first during the harvest and after the first tastings of the musts and even the young wines. Longer standing times on the skins are just as effective a means of natural pH correction as the pressing process itself and, of course, the extended time on the lees—perhaps the most elegant means of integrating the acidity well and building body or texture. Many dry 2021s, especially Rieslings, have just been bottled—at the end of July and beginning of August; many others continue to lie on their lees. Many freshly bottled wines are still barely ready for tasting, if at all, as the Grosses Gewächs tastings in Wiesbaden earlier this week showed. But my first samples on the Nahe and Mosel showed that the 2021 Rieslings in particular are wines for two, three or even more generations!

Because 2021 was a ripe vintage despite the high acidity and low alcohol levels. It did not need high must weights to be able to produce ripe, dense and extract-rich wines. Schäfer-Fröhlich, for example, is a memorable example of the fact that there are also terrific dry Rieslings in 2021, also Dönnhoff, although in a completely different, rather juicy and elegant style, while Tim Fröhlich focuses primarily on density and structure. Both are combined by Clemens Busch on the Mosel, whose Grosse Lagen are ravishing. At Loosen, too, everything is great that comes from very old vines and is called Grosses Gewächs, but I find his Kabinett wines too lean; they lack expression, and I really had problems finding the site character that the label indicates. Otherwise, however, 2021 is indeed primarily a vintage for the fun predicates Kabinett and Spätlese. Christoph Schaefer (Willi Schaefer), for example, has set monuments and real benchmarks for the Kabinett as well as the Spätlese in the Graacher Domprobst in 2021. Oliver Haag did the same with the higher predicates such as Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese in the Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr. They are shining lights of Riesling!

2020 on the other hand? As hard as I'm having with many dry 2020s at the moment, I'm thrilled with the Prädikats here too. Joh. Jos. Prüm has a terrific collection of Prädikat wines from Kabinett to Auslese, and Markus Molitor's 2020s are also once again in a league of their own, especially in the dry range (Prälat and Doctor). In the Rheingau, the Rieslings of non-VDP members Georg Breuer and JB Becker are fascinating. Kühn and others I have already written about recently. In the fall, I will report on other wines, above all the wines tasted in Wiesbaden, many of which still need serious polishing. Stay tuned and good luck in finding some of the most fascinating Rieslings in years, possibly decades!