Horst and Sandra Sauer, Weingut Horst Sauer, are Germany's Winemaker of the Year - Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018.
Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018: Horst und Sandra Sauer – Franken
„Dank Horst und Sandra Sauers energischem und genussvollen Bekenntnis zum Silvaner in allen Facetten feiert diese alte Rebsorte heute ungeahnte Erfolge und ist zum Symbol der Frankenwein-Renaissance geworden“, würdigt der Gault&Millau das Duo. „Was der immer unter Strom stehende Winzer zusammen mit seiner Tochter an Weinen über eine lange Zeit hinweg erschafft – das ist außergewöhnlich. Die Sauers spielen nicht nur ein Stück auf der Klaviatur des Weines, sondern eine ganze Symphonie. Vor allem den Silvaner aus der weltberühmten Lage Escherndorfer Lump dekliniert keiner so wie sie: vom genüsslichen Trinkwein über das Große Gewächs bis hin zu hinreißenden Edelsüßen.“ Aufs Schönste zeigten die Beiden, welche Vielfalt in Deutschlands Rebbergen möglich sei. Für diese Leistung erhält das Weingut vier rote Trauben von fünf möglichen sowie die seltene Höchstnote von 100 Punkten für den Escherndorfer Lump Silvaner Eiswein 2016.
Translation, Christian Schiller: "Thanks to Horst and Sandra Sauer's energetic and joyful commitment to the Silvaner in all its facets, this old grape variety celebrates unexpected success today and has become a symbol of the Franconian wine renaissance", the Gault & Millau honors the duo. "What the always-energized winemaker and his daughter have been achieving for a long period of time - that's extraordinary. The Sauers play not only a piece on the keyboard of the wine, but a whole symphony. Above all, nobody declines the Silvaner from the world-famous location Escherndorfer Lump as they do: from enjoyable entry-level wine to the GGs and the gorgeous noble sweet wines. "The two of them show beautifully, what is possible in Germany's vineyards in terms of variety. For this achievement, the winery receives four red grapes (4 1/2) of five possible and the rare top score of 100 points for the Escherndorfer Lump Silvaner Eiswein 2016.
Weingut Horst Sauer
Weingut Horst Sauer is in Escherndorf in the Main Triangle area in Franken. Horst Sauer made his first wine in 1977, the birth year of his daughter. Since then he has become one of Germany’s truly exceptional winemakers.
Today, the vineyard area totals 20.5 hectares. They are planted with the white grape varieties Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Riesling, Bacchus, Pinot Blanc and Scheurebe, as well as with the red varieties Pinot Noir and Domination. The output of Weingut Horst Sauer doubled in the past 10 years.
The wines are made in a newly built four-story winery, where the grapes and wines are moved on the shortest possible routes entirely by gravity. This gentle treatment in conjunction with a slow, restrained fermentation yields very delicate, clean, pure wine.
Fantastic dry wines are produced at this estate mainly from Silvaner, but also from Riesling, Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir. Besides dry wines Horst Sauer is known for lusciously sweet specialities.
To get a glimpse into his philosophy of winemaking I will quote Horst Sauer here: “The start of a great wine lies in the winemaker’s imagination. I use to keep close watch on nature. Each year is different. The experiences we made in the past change our view and our range of options. You have to consider carefully when to influence, to control, to improve, and to enhance. And you have to find out at which point control becomes manipulation. Each wine has only one spring, one summer, one autumn, and one ripening season. Once you become aware of this fact, you know what it means to be patient. Only those who have a vision will find the way to their goal.”
20 percent of the production is accounted for by exports. This is a rather high export share by Franconian standards. Asia and Scandinavia are the main export destinations. Nothing comes to the US. 50% of the production is sold at the winery.
Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018
The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 was released on Monday, November 27, 2017, in Munich, jointly with the Gault Millau Deutschland 2018, which is food guide and rates restaurants and chefs. 3 days earlier, the Vinum WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 was released in Mainz.
Interestingly, the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 (24th issue) and the Vinum WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 (1st issue) share a common history.
The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 was published by the Zabert + Sandmann Verlag, which had aquired the license for the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland from the Christian Verlag in June 2017, which had published the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2017.
A year ago, when the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2017 was published by the Christian Verlag, Joel B. Payne was the Editor-in-Chief and Carsten S. Henn his Deputy. Joel B. Payne was at the helm of the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland since its first issue in 1994 (earlier with Armin Diel).
Against the background of the transfer of the licence to publish the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland from the Christian Verlag to the Zabert + Sandmann Verlag Joel B. Payne stayed with the Christian Verlag, brought on board the Vinum Journal and managed - along with his Deputy Carsten S. Henn as well as his well established team of taster - to continue publishing a wine guide, under a new name: The Vinum WeinGuide Deutschland. I attended the release event of the latter and have reported about it here:
The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 was put togather by a newly established team of tasters, all of them highly regarded, led by Editor-in-Chief Britta Wiegelmann, who took over from Joel B. Payne. Previously, she was Editor-in-Chief of the Vinum Wine Journal.
As a result of all these changes, there was quite a bit of movement in the ratings between the 2017 and 2108 issues of the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland. This becomes obvious, inter alia, when you look at the large number of climbers to the 5, 4 1/2 and 4 grapes categories. Notably the group of top winemakers with 5/ 5 grapes grew from 13 to 18 members.
This posting is the second in a series of postings:
Germany's 18 Top Winemakers - The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018
Germany's Best Winemaker and Wines - Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 Awards
Promotions to 5, 4 1/2 and 4 Stars in the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018
Winemaker of the Year: Horst and Sandra Sauer, Weingut Horst Sauer, Franken - Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018
The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland is a leading wine guide for German wine. Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland uses a scale of 1 to 5 grapes to rate winemakers and a scale of 1 to 100 points to rate their wines.
The Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2018 contains the 1000 best German wine makers, of which 18 received 5/5 grapes.This is up by 5 grapes compared to last year. Nobody was demoted; 5 wine producers were promoted.
The 5 promotions (all well deserved) were:
Weingut Aldinger – Württemberg
Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan – Pfalz
Weingut Dr. Heger – Baden
Weingut Markus Molitor – Mosel
Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm – Mosel
Previous Years' Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland Winemakers of the Year
Here is a list of the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland Winemakers of the Year of previous years:
Hanno and Dorothee Zilliken are Winemaker of the Year (Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2017)
Peter Jakob Kühn, Weingut Kühn, see: Germany’s Best Winemakers and Wines – Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2016 Awards: The Awards Ceremony in Mainz, Germany
Thomas Haag, Weingut Schloss Lieser, Germany’s Winemaker of the Year, Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2015
Phlipp Wittmann, Weingut Wittmann, see: Best German Wines and Winemakers: Gault Millau Awards – Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2014
Joachim Heger, Weingut Dr. Heger, see: Best German Wines and Wine Makers – the Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2013 Awards
Matthias Müller, Weingut Matthias Müller, see: 2012: Best German Wines (Awards) – Gault Millau WeinGuide Deutschland 2012
Johannes Leitz, Weingut Leitz, see: Gault Millau WeinGuide Germany 2011– Ratings
Tim Fröhlich, Weingut Schäfer Fröhlich, see: Gault Millau Wine Germany 2010
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