This year was one of surprises for German wines, the most important of them being how the 2020 vintage dry whites turned out far better than anyone dared to hope during the summer and harvest. If 2019 hadn’t been even better, then 2020 might well have been celebrated as a great vintage!

Why? In almost 40 years of following the wines of Germany I have never seen anything like 2020: it was all charm and elegance, produced under conditions that theoretically made these things impossible. All the old wine books and many modern wine websites tell you Germany is one of the classic cool-climate winemaking locations, with rainfall spread throughout the year. However, the 2020 vintage was not only warmer than historic warm vintages like 1959 and 1976, but also exceptionally dry.

In fact, 2020 was the third drought year in a row and by the end of it the vineyards of Germany were short of rain by an average of 34 centimeters (or just over a foot). As a result, trees with scorched foliage were a common sight. Many wine lovers therefore assumed that the vines must also be badly stressed.

Riesling is more drought-sensitive than chardonnay and theoretically ill-suited to these conditions. However, in the summer of 2020 riesling proved it’s not the sensitive flower that it’s often assumed to be. Usually, as long as the vines were at least a decade old and soils were well managed, their roots could reach enough water to keep photosynthesis going and the grapes developing.

This year’s No. 1 German wine, the dry Dönnhoff Riesling Nahe Hermannshöhle GG 2020, is the perfect example of what was possible. It has great concentration and structure but is also extremely precise and elegant.

The No. 2 German wine is a perfect example of a late-harvested riesling from nobly rotten grapes; a classic wine style with centuries of tradition. The Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Mosel Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Gold Cap 2019 is spectacularly concentrated and succulent but has a fabulous brilliance rare in wines with natural grape sweetness.

2019 was a very great vintage for these wines, but they were very difficult to produce in 2020 because it was mostly so dry there was no Botrytis, or the grapes developed it very slowly. Even specialists like Egon Muller-Scharzhof in the Mosel and Robert Weil in the Rheingau could only produce miniscule quantities of such wines. Those tiny quantities are the reason that riesling BAs and TBAs are absent from this list, and even Auslese are rare. 

The No. 3 German wine, the Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Rheingau Grünlack Spätlese 2020, belongs to the legal category below Auslese but is a tremendous achievement for this producer, almost matching the aromatic and filigree perfection of the previous vintage, which was our No. 1 German wine last year.

Why do we weigh the factors quantity and price when assembling the Top 100 hit lists, as well as the ratings that we’ve given? Well, those factors massively impact how accessible these wines are. In these lists it’s important for us to avoid making a major recommendation for wines of which there are only a few hundred bottles, because you’ll almost certainly be unable to buy them.

There are 35,000 bottles of the stunningly racy and super-mineral dry Robert Weil Riesling Kiedrich Gräfenberg GG 2020, making it the largest production wine in this Top 100. That, together with the stunning quality and moderate price, are the reasons it placed 12th. The smallest production wines lie somewhat below 10 percent of that and are nearly all in the last third of the list.

Unfortunately, these rules hit some of Germany’s most exciting rising star winemakers. For example, Stefan Steinmetz of the Gunther Steinmetz winery in the Mosel barely gained a position on this list, and his Mosel colleague Julian Haart of the eponymous winery was locked out completely. In both cases, this means wines that scored 100 points are absent from our Top 100 list.

Picture: Tour and Tasting at Schloss Johannisberg, Rheingau, with Christian Witte, Domaine Director– Germany-North Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015), Germany(2014)

SPECTACULAR PINOTS

These vintners belong to a new group of producers whose uncompromising commitment to quality and acceptance of tiny yields often lead to extremely limited-edition wines. This situation is directly comparable to some small domains in the Burgundy wine region of France, where only one or two casks of wine from a particular Grand Cru vineyards are produced each vintage.

Also reminiscent of Burgundy is the spectacular quality of the 2019 German pinot noir, or spatburgunder, red wines. 2018 and 2019 are clearly the best vintages for these wines in Germany in modern times and perhaps ever. We rate the 2019s higher because they’re more consistent than the 2018s.

Johannes and Christoph Thorle head this pack in the fourth spot on our Top 100 list for their Thörle Spätburgunder Rheinhessen Hölle 2019, a truly breathtaking pinot noir that’s as concentrated as it is refined. The equally impressive but more expensive Bernhard Huber Spätburgunder Baden Wildenstein GG 2019 came in at No. 9 on the Top 100 list.

As important as these categories of high-end German wines are, the diversity of this year’s Top 100 Germany is striking. The May Silvaner Franken Rothlauf GG 2020 (No. 13) is the most mineral and complex dry wine from this unfashionable grape variety we have ever encountered. Here’s an example of what we call the “Wow Factor,” meaning extraordinary wines.