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English Sparkling Wine: Effervescence and Reserve
featured
, Feb 2025
This not-quite inaugural report on English Sparkling Wine (Neal Martin reported from the depths of lockdown in July 2020) shines a light on England’s much-hyped fizz and puts it all into context. I tasted just over 100 current releases, hailing from as far west as Cornwall, all the way east via Essex to the Suffolk Coast, along England’s southern counties of Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire and Surrey, to its wine heartlands in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire—as well as Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. There are some world-class wines among them and some stunning late releases. Blanc de Blancs is the star among a wonderful diversity of styles, geographic origins and producers.
2023 Mosel-Saar-Ruwer: A Riesling Race Against Rain
featured, Germany: Saar, germany: Mosel, Germany: Ruwer
, Dec 2024
The slopes that drop steeply to the meandering Mosel in the Rhenish Slate Massif received their fair share of sunshine and rain in 2023. While the first half of the growing season made many fear a repeat of the drought conditions of 2022, summer rain arrived with all its concomitant factors. Initially welcomed with relief, ripening soon accelerated, threatening to split berries and attracting the wrong kind of rot. Once again, flexibility and agility were of the essence, and selection was the name of the game. Where 2022 was fine-boned, 2023 is juicy and exuberant. Lovers of Spätlese will be especially happy with the 2023 Rieslings.
Rheinhessen & Rheingau: Riesling Triumphs After Rain
featured, Germany
, Oct 2024
Rheingau and Rheinhessen produced world-class Rieslings in 2023. The wines are bursting with flavor and delineated by freshness but moderate in alcohol. An initially dry year was drenched in late summer rains, which the late-ripening Riesling weathered with aplomb. Steep, stony slopes of historic renown proved their exalted status all over again. If there is one operative attribute for this Riesling vintage, it is juiciness. In the Rheingau, off-dry and nobly sweet wines with electric acidity are an added bonus. The 2022 Pinot Noirs are some of the best ever.
2024 Pre-Auctions Report: Trier & Bad Kreuznach - Songs of the 49th Parallel
featured, Germany
, Sep 2024
Moved to a November slot, the Trier and Bad Kreuznach auctions offer a great opportunity to delve into the 2023 Riesling vintage. Across regions, the vintage clearly separated the wheat from the chaff. In Mosel, Saar and Ruwer, 2023 is the year for Kabinett and Spätlese. Bad Kreuznach offers thrills of mostly dry, hair-raising Rieslings that are alive with fruit and energy. The 2023 Riesling vintage in Germany has everything: tons of fruit, proper acidity, much dry extract at moderate alcohol levels, and – in dry white wine territory – unparalleled potential for longevity. What is not to like?
Nahe, Pfalz & Mittelrhein–Of Wheat, Chaff and Thrill
featured, Germany
, Sep 2024
In 2023, these three disparate regions had two things in common: challenging weather and a turbo-charged harvest. While 2022 had been extremely dry, 2023 had plenty of rain, but often at the wrong time. Harvest was a race against time, rot and fast-advancing ripeness. Selective hand harvesting was the absolute key to quality. Many of the wines I tasted from these top producers were simply thrilling, but overall, 2023 is definitely a case of caveat emptor. Some spectacular Spätlesen and Auslesen are a bonus – albeit in tiny quantities.
2023 Wachau and Lower Austria: Mercurial Weather Gods Smiled in the End
featured, Austria
, Jul 2024
In 2023, all the signs pointed to a long growing season with a late harvest, but rains after a hot summer with record temperatures sped everything up. These August rains provided some relief from dry stress but also turned into devastating hailstorms in places. Coolish and sunny weather allowed hail-damaged grapes to dry, preventing what could have been a complete rot-fest. In the end, growers could harvest ripe grapes. Overall, Lower Austria and Vienna delivered exquisitely clean wines with vivid fruit expression and welcome crunch and contour. If recent comparisons serve, 2023 tops 2022 but does not quite reach the level of 2021 in all respects – even though some wines get there.
Alsace 2022 Reds: Continuing Their Trajectory
France: Alsace, featured
, May 2024
Alsace Pinot Noir continues to show its mettle. Most of the wines I tasted for this report are from the warm 2022 vintage, so sumptuous black cherry flavors abound, but happily free from the sins of over-oaking and over-extraction. The limestone-based wines are the clear winners. While the entry-level reds provide immense fresh-faced joy with their juiciness, the top wines need not shy away from the global limelight. The 2021 Pinot Noirs are trickier, but the best come with seductive slenderness and red-fruited brightness.
Alsace 2022 Whites – A Lucky Escape
France: Alsace, featured
, Apr 2024
For the most part, vintage 2022 in Alsace was both warm and dry. The region was lucky to escape the extreme heat and drought that plagued much of the rest of France. Rain arrived, sometimes “in extremis,” and saved the crop from losses that could have been worse. Wineries harvested concentrated, luminous Riesling despite some hail, and producers made Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer in a range of styles, resulting in plush wines. Even Sylvaners exhibit uncommon fruitiness. Beyond vineyards and cellars, ongoing consolidation within Alsace’s already polarized wine industry is of increasing concern to independent growers. The latter value quality over quantity while the drive for quantity by ever bigger behemoths explains the sea of vineyards across the plains along the autoroute.
Evoe! German and Austrian Sekt Report
featured, Germany, Austria
, Mar 2024
The landscape of Austrian and German sparkling wine, or Sekt, has changed beyond recognition – at long last. What began with the heroic and often lone efforts of a handful of determined individuals in the 1970s and 1980s is finally in full fizz. It took decades of legal changes and challenges to create this new category, but even more so, it took years of cultural re-assessment to rehabilitate the historical term “Sekt”. Traditional method Sekt is now a serious, exciting and growing category in both countries. The ambition is palpable. This inaugural Sekt report covers bottle-fermented Sekts from Styria to the Weinviertel in Austria and Baden to Saxony in Germany. The revival was slow, but today, you can hear corks popping everywhere.
2022 Burgenland and Austria’s East – A Heaven for Unsung but Compelling Reds
featured, Austria
, Feb 2024
Austria’s central and eastern wine regions produced as much red wine as white. Tasting and thinking about the wines I encountered, it is clearer than ever to me that Blaufränkisch deserves a much wider audience. Moreover, it deserves to be planted far and wide in various corners of the globe. It is one of the last red sleepers out there. My estate visits in November 2023 yielded more tasting notes from the stunning 2021 vintage than from 2022. Because many wineries release wines with delay, this report also includes notes for a sizeable amount of 2020s, 2019s and 2018s – all of them current releases.