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The figures of the cultivation statistics are corresponding: Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc have more than doubled their cultivation area in the last 20 years, Chardonnay - coming from a low level - has increased about fifteenfold. While the area under Riesling has remained at a good 23,000 hectares and the areas under almost all other white wine varieties have declined, in some cases massively, the Burgundy vineyards have grown to a total of almost 14,000 hectares - and the trend is still rising strongly.
The southern wine-growing regions continue to lead in the cultivation of white Burgundy varieties, above all Baden, the land of Pinot Gris par excellence. 12 of the 18 top Pinot Gris wines in our BEST OF come from Baden alone. Pinot Blancs are much more homogeneously distributed in Germany, and this also applies to the increasingly broad top range. 33 wines made it to BEST OF, among them a conspicuously large number from the Palatinate in addition to Baden, but Rheinhessen, Württemberg and Franconia are also prominently represented. In Chardonnay, Baden is still unrivalled in terms of quality, but this is mainly due to one single producer. Behind them this year, Baden and the increasingly strong Palatinate share the places - briefly interrupted by an outstanding Rheinhessen.
Stylistically, the trend at the top is moving further and further away from the fat, alcohol-rich examples with noticeable use of wood towards firm, bone-dry wines that have been aged on their lees for a long time. Even if Burgundy is clearly the model here, the result is by no means interchangeable copies, quite the opposite. The significantly increased precision makes the differences in origin and character all the more obvious.
Last year we tasted almost 700 wines from white Burgundy varieties up to the 2016 vintage (the 2017s will only be considered in the next BEST OF ). We present the best of them here and, as always, also in a handy PDF presentation. But there are many more of the recommendable wines in all styles and price regions. Links to all the wines tasted their producers with detailed descriptions can be found at the end of the list. This also applies to the Auxerrois, which definitely deserves attention, even if it is not represented with any wine in BEST OF this year.