The "Discovery of the Year" is awarded to wineries that we either did not know until recently, or that have recently attracted our attention with the greatest leap in quality in the respective region and that we can only recommend to every wine lover who wants to get to know new, not yet universally known top winemakers. Whether we can award a prize also depends on how representative the wine entries from the respective region turned out to be, but also on how complete the eligible wineries submitted and how good the overall standard is. So we may have no award winners at all for some areas, and possibly only one collection or discovery of the year for others.
With the 2020 vintage, which is not always easy, Julian Huber has presented a series that even we, whose expectations of Huber are not exactly small, were not prepared for. The local wines alone are stunning (and that goes for the rosé too!), the "Grosse Gewächse“ from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir mark the pinnacle of what has ever been made from these varieties in Germany.
The Krebs winery took a break for 10 years until it presented us with wines again for the first time in 2021 - with pleasing results. The current collection clearly underlines this good impression. Gutedel The Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and even the very reasonably priced Müller-Thurgau are all convincing.
For the first time in a long time we were able to taste a complete assortment of the Zehnthof. And we couldn't help but make it our collection of the year. There is hardly a wine here that we would not emphatically recommend. The Silvaner wines are in a class of their own anyway, but the Riesling from the Maustal also has little competition in Franconia.
An extremely pleasing new discovery is the Ottenbreit Winery from Obernbreit, just a bit south of Sulzfeld, where our "Collection of the Year" comes from. The basic wines are simply good, the Müller "Long live Müller-Thurgau" only narrowly missed out on winning the variety award last year, and the orange wine from the Silvaner, like all Naturals, will certainly not please everyone, but we were thrilled by it.
Constantin Richter produces such classic as well as completely independent Mosel Rieslings in a class of their own. In doing so, he masters the entire Bandbŕeite from bone dry (which is rare enough in the Mosel anyway) to noble sweet in equal measure. There is no category in which he does not deliver at least one of the finest wines of the entire region. And regularly.
It was not always a matter of course that the fantastically situated Hermannsberg estate produced wines that did justice to its unique ambience. Under the current management, however, the former state domain has once again firmly established itself among the top Nahe vintners. The current Riesling series inspires from the Gutswein to the current "Grosse Gewächse“ to the reserves of earlier vintages that have just been released. We don't want to forget Kabinett and Spätlese, and we can' t forget the grandiose TBA!
This year, no one can ignore Rings. How they managed to produce some of the greatest dry Rieslings we have ever encountered in a vintage as difficult as 2021, at least in parts, and that too in such an uncompromising style, is a question that will probably stay with us longer than we have bottles of it. Yes, these are advanced wines that don't reveal themselves at first sip, but if you pay enough attention and take enough time, they will leave you stunned. And the Pinot Noirs are just getting better and better...
Achim von Oetinger produces Rieslings that are unique, at least in the Rheingau: completely unagitated, bone-dry, often downright resting in themselves, yet deep, multi-layered and expressive. They have long been among our favourites in the Rheingau, and not only at the level of "Grosse Gewächse“. And by the way, one of the best dry Müller-Thurgau wines you can find anywhere is produced here.
This year we tasted a series of tremendously exciting dry Rieslings from Gunderloch. We can't remember ever having tasted such energetic wines here. The Niersteiner and Nackenheimer "Aus Ersten Lagen" belong to our favourites in this category, the 21er "Grosse Gewächse“ to the absolute top in this often not so easy year.
We have been able to taste two vintages from Heiligenblut so far, both rather challenging - and both have convinced us. At Riesling, the Hannemanns have a knack for sweet and dry in equal measure, but Silvaner and Scheurebe are also always recommendable.
Among the best 8 Württemberg wines of the vintage we rated, 4 are from Aldinger alone, and they still account for almost a third of the top 20. Sober figures that are impressive in themselves, but only indirectly indicate how much pleasure we had with the wines. And that applies equally to whites and reds.
The Escher family produces tightly woven, predominantly powerful red wines that are among the best in the region - and that, in addition to Lemberger, also from Bordeaux grape varieties. The Chardonnay is also remarkably good.
If we have our way, the wines here are better than ever: brilliantly pure, fresh, precise, multi-layered and tremendously animating, yet always completely unpretentious. This also applies to Gernot Heinrich's natural wines, which are marketed under the name "Freyheit". We are thrilled.
The tightly woven, tart, complex Veltliners from Hans Topf and his sons Hans Peter and Maximilian were among our absolute favourites at last year's Veltliner tasting. Even the strong specimens are full of finesse, noblesse, coolness and elegance. A great series.
We have tasted a long series of white wines from 2018 to 2021 from Lackner-Tinnacher in the past weeks - and have not found a single mediocre wine. Regardless of the grape variety, whether bone dry or noble sweet: Katharina Tinnacher's absolutely independent wines are among the most beautiful in Styria in all categories.
The wines of Pira have something like a subscription to our favourite wine hearts by now. No wonder: they combine power, substance and depth with an astonishing wealth of finesse. They are extremely true-to-the-origin, complex Barolos that can be beguiling even when young, but at the same time age superbly.
The incredibly characterful, deep and complex Nebbiolo wines from Arpepe, old-fashioned in the best sense of the word, have been among our favourites for years. But even we have rarely, perhaps never, experienced them as great as they have been lately. They stand up to any comparison with great Barolo, they just taste completely different. These genuine mountain wines demand attention and sensitivity if you want to fathom what they are made of. And they are immensely worth it.
Andrea Franchetti, who died at the end of 2021, is one of the fathers of the quality revolution on Etna. He has left us a series of impressive, highly individual, profound and complex volcanic wines, which alone would be worthy of intensive study in the future in what is currently perhaps Italy's most exciting wine region.
This is not the first time that the Terlan Winery has produced our Collection of the Year in South Tyrol. This probably best cooperative in the world regularly impresses us with white wines that rival anything produced from the respective varieties anywhere else. And at least in the case of Pinot Blanc, it usually wins the competition. One almost overlooks the red wines. You shouldn't do that: here, too, the comrades from Terlan in South Tyrol are among the leaders.
Christoph Unterhofer's wines are quite unique in South Tyrol. They can be very powerful, but also surprisingly slender and cool for South Tyrol. But they always have their very own spice, tension, depth, freshness and complexity.
Domaine Combier is one of the pioneers of organic viticulture in France. At its peak, it produces decidedly tightly woven, powerful Crozes-Hermitage, which are among the most complex, expressive and long-lived wines in the region. But even the juicy, spicy base wines are worth trying.
It was only in 2013 that Niko Brandner started making sparkling wine in the cross-vaulted cellar of the former state vineyards in Bensheim. From the very beginning, it was clear that someone here knew his craft. Now that reserve qualities are gradually coming onto the market, however, the full potential and skill at Griesel is only becoming apparent. In barely 10 years, the company has developed into one of the most important sparkling wine producers outside of Champagne.
