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wein.plus Tasting Director Marcus Hofschuster has published the 175,000th review in the 25th year of his work at wein.plus. There are only a few tasters worldwide who can look back on such immense experience.
On December 1, 2025, he rated the 2022 Rüdesheim Berg Rottland Riesling trocken from the Bischöfliches Weingut (Rheingau) with 90 points.
Hofschuster's first review in the wein.plus tasting database appeared on June 7, 2000. At that time, he rated the 1999 Riesling Spätlese from Escherndorf Lump from the Michael Blendel Winery (Franconia). It was available at the time for 13.20 Marks and received 81 points.
Since the start, Marcus Hofschuster has relied on the 100-point scale for ratings and consistent blind tasting under the same conditions in the tasting room in Erlangen. "We take much more time for the wines today than we did in the past, taste them multiple times if necessary, and today we have multiple optimized conditions—for example, in the selection of glasses," he describes the continuity of his work.
Worldwide, only very few tasters work with this strict consistency: Hofschuster rejects point awards at trade fairs, tasting events, or at the winery, as a neutral and careful assessment under these circumstances is hardly possible for him. "The reliability and comparability of ratings over many vintages is the decisive requirement I place on our work," emphasizes the tasting director.
The most important development of wines in the 25 years of his work is for him "the enormous increase in quality across the board." "In 2000, about a third of the wines we tasted were not recommendable," reports Marcus Hofschuster, "but not at least 'good' wines have become a rarity." The crucial point for him: An increasing part of European top wines is now produced organically or biodynamically.
Among the newer trends in the wine world, the wein.plus tasting director particularly notes that despite the ever-increasing challenges of climate change, many wines, especially in Germany, taste "tendentially slimmer, lighter, finer, and cooler." The now established quality pyramid of dry wines from estate, village, and site wines has not led to "the extinction of dry light wine" for him. For Hofschuster, the opposite is true: "Anyone in Germany who mourns the tradition of dry cabinet wine apparently has not yet registered that there have probably never been so many good dry wines with rather low alcohol content as today—and that in all price and quality levels."
Since the beginning of his work 25 years ago, Marcus Hofschuster has placed particular emphasis on the greatest possible differentiation of rated wines. He therefore uses the 100-point scale more extensively than other tasters. "We are often accused of giving too low points," explains Hofschuster, "but we only rate much more differentiated than is common today. Real top wines also receive the high ratings they deserve from us. However, the points inflation of recent years has meant that the actual quality differences are hardly represented realistically anymore." He sets his standards differently: The dream score of 100 points has only been awarded by Hofschuster in the 25 years of his work to 17 of the now 175,000 wines.
(ed.)