![]() ![]() Chile and Germany often perform well here. Under £10, the wines may be relatively simple, but they are eminently quaffable. These are delightful pure Rieslings, often fairly delicate with jasmine and lemon and orange blossom accenting orchard fruits. Medium dry wines seem to have adjusted the sugar-acidity balance with care and attention. When used with discretion, use of ‘old-and-large’ oak is to be commended. Many earned well-deserved Golds and a Master capped this group.Ībove £20 the wines have elegance and impeccable balance between sweetness, acidity and fruit flavours with added interest of floral and honey accents.Ī couple of wines in these drier categories had been aged in older oak barrels of various sizes, which gives extra depth and interest to the aromatics and rounding the texture in the mouth. Every ‘dry’ Riesling, from Under £10 to Over £50, was awarded at least a Silver medal. Many of the wines have a lovely accent of lemon or orange blossom, adding interest. The dry wines, with just a tiny amount of residual sugars and usually ripe fruit, have purity of citrus flavours, ranging from lemon-lime, tangerine and orange zest in Australia through to apple, pear, apricot, honey and minerality in wines from Germany or Alsace. The judging day began as it planned to continue. This great grape variety shows its range beautifully, far beyond its ‘homeland’ of Germany, Alsace and Austria. Its range of styles and quality levels is apparent, and at almost every price category Riesling offers unbelievable value for money. By Patricia Stefanowicz MWĪFTER AN exceptional day of judging the Riesling Masters 2021, it is difficult to understand what is not to love about the wines made from the Riesling variety. We’re proud to present our selection of the finest German wines from this year’s IWSC.A full report on 2021’s Global Riesling Masters, featuring all the medal-winners, most-successful styles, best-value drops, and highlight bottles – including some brilliant wines from Kazakhstan. To eschew German wines is to miss out on some of the world’s finest bottles, so now is the perfect time to experience them. She was assisted by fellow Masters of Wine Alistair Cooper and Matthew Forster, as well as Master Sommelier Eric Zwiebel and wine consultant Valentin Radosav. A brace of Heinz Wagner wines, both Pinot Noir/Chardonnay blends, took home Silver medals: Brut Nature 2016, which offered toasty, honeyed notes of tarte Tatin, and Rosé Brut Nature 2018, packed with red summer forest berries, peach and aromas of freshly baked croissant.Įvery German wine in this year’s IWSC was tasted blind by a top panel of judges led by Sarah Abbott MW. German sparkling wines (aka Sekt) also performed well. Gold-medal winner Weingut Reverchon Ockfener Bockstein Alte Reben Riesling 2019 is a fine example, scoring 95/100pts and wowing the judges with its textbook aromas of jasmine, lime zest and petrol (a classic Riesling tasting note), accompanied by a palate of pink grapefruit, mango and cherry, with a touch of wet slate on the finish. Expressive of its terroir and suitable for long ageing, Riesling is a world-class variety – wine writer Jancis Robinson MW has described it as ‘the greatest white wine grape in the world’, and when it’s at its best, it’s hard to disagree. The star of the show is Riesling – for many, the best, most expressive white grape bar none – and in this year’s IWSC, the variety dominated the German wine category. The complicated, impenetrable nature of German wine labels undoubtedly plays its part in hindering discovery, as does certain people’s associations with poor-quality off-dry wine from the 1970s and 1980s, but things are changing as wine drinkers start to realise just how good German wine is. This is such a shame, as the quality of the top German wines is exceptional, whether it’s a refreshing, mineral-tinged Riesling, aromatic Pinot Noir (known locally as Spätburgunder) or a top-notch sparkling or sweet wine. ![]() Germany has yet to truly capture the hearts of wine drinkers in the same way other countries have. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |