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First came frost, then rain—not an easy year for German winegrowers. But what they made of it is amazing: the Riesling wines are often excellent. This is the result of our tasting of around 1,100 wines.

The 2024 wine year got off to a devastating start for many German winegrowers: in many parts of Germany, late frosts froze the young shoots that sprouted early after a mild winter. Not all winegrowers were affected equally: while some regions were completely or largely spared, others sometimes suffered total losses. Although the vines were so early that one could hope to bring the second budding to maturity, a difficult autumn with low yields was already foreseeable in the affected areas.

But the frost was not the only challenge. After a cool May, it was above all the persistent and regular rainfall with warm temperatures that kept the winegrowers on their toes. The urgently needed plant protection caused problems, especially on many steep slopes, as many machines could only work with difficulty and at considerable risk on the softened soils.

But the rain also had its advantages. After many years of struggling to supply the vines with water and dry sites as well as vineyards with younger vines regularly experiencing drought stress, the plants were well supplied this year. This was reflected in juicy, aromatically complex, and mineral wines wherever the grapes could be brought into the autumn in good health. After a dry August, autumn began with the best harvest weather. This did not always remain stable, as occasional rainfall in September forced the winegrowers to take repeated breaks, but the delayed harvest and the associated long hanging times were even more favourable for quality.

In the end, some regions recorded their smallest harvest in decades, while others escaped without any losses. Rheinhessen, parts of which were hit hard by hail in 2023, even recorded an increase. The dramatic circumstances even led to members of the VDP being allowed to purchase wines from colleagues in other wine regions and offer them with the VDP seal under a special arrangement. In 2024, for example, the Dönnhoff winery (Nahe) will offer two local wines from Westhofen (Rheinhessen) and Forst (Pfalz), which were allowed to be harvested from Wittmann and Bürklin-Wolf vineyards.

So everyone involved was probably happy when this autumn, which was one of the longest and most difficult in recent decades, came to an end. But the immense effort was worth it. The result is a vintage that can already be described as classic, with Riesling wines that tend to be lean and low in alcohol, but at the same time expressive: full of tension, aromatically complex, mineral, and mature.

We tasted almost 1,500 Rieslings in the last tasting season, of which almost 1,400 were from Germany, plus a few representatives from Austria, Italy, and Alsace. In addition to current wines, we also tasted a whole series of mature wines to demonstrate their ability to develop, but also to check our judgements at the time. These wines come mainly from our archive, but also partly from those of the producers.

As always, we can only present an extract of all the results here for reasons of clarity. You will find links to all the Riesling wines tasted and their producers at the end of each list. There are still plenty of great wines to discover, especially among the dry wines, which have not found a place here.

Riesling dry Vintage 2024

Riesling dry Vintage 2023

Riesling dry Older vintages

Riesling dry Up to 15 €

Riesling semi-dry/fine-dry Up to 20 g/l residual sugar

Sweeter Riesling Without predicate

Riesling Kabinett