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In practice, however, things look quite different. Of course, there are also ponderous, alcohol-rich and finesse-free wines in 2018, bitter tones caused by sunburn and one or two other shifts in aroma. As was the case last year, the qualities also fluctuate greatly, even among individual producers. In general, however, the vintage is much better than many initially feared. The atypical age notes (UTA), which were reflexively diagnosed early on as a typical consequence of drought stress, are very limited on closer inspection, the acids are generally healthy and the alcohol levels are completely inconspicuous, especially among the good producers. Some winemakers even speak of the best wines of their lives.
Nevertheless, we are rather cautious with such assessments. Especially the top Rieslings of the vintage often have their very own, conspicuous phenolic, which we hardly know from other years. We wouldn't be surprised if some of the wines did even better than today when they were sufficiently mature in the bottle, but some of them were often impressive even after days in the air, but at the same time still so walled in that we had no choice but to remain cautious in our assessment. So we are more curious than ever to see how the best wines of the vintage will develop.
But, as always, it is worthwhile to pay attention to more than just the vintage peaks. 2018, too, offers a wealth of highly recommendable, and contrary to all fears, often stimulatingly fine-fruited, elegant, lively wines, and often at very consumer-friendly prices. These are inevitably not listed in our BEST OF, which is about the highest-rated wines of the tasting season, In Focus, but are nevertheless worth every attention. We therefore strongly recommend looking at all the tasting results. We tasted more than 1200 dry Rieslings last year. As always, you can find the best ones here and as PDF.
Cover picture: Traiser Bastei, Nahe