Rather, the main reasons are the lack of staff, partly due to illness, and the increased workload at the same time. In times of pandemic, when no fairs and often not even on-site tastings can take place, we are rightly among the few opportunities to present the wines when they are on sale. But of course we don't want to let the award winners fall by the wayside because of this, and better late than never we present here our selection of producers who particularly caught our eye last year. We give our Collection and Discovery of the Year awards wherever we were able to taste the wines of a majority of top producers last year, at least in individual appellations, which is why many countries are only included with individual regions and others are missing a few.
Whoever tastes Frank and Marc Adeneuer's wines should forget Burgundy for a while. Here, Ahr Pinot Noir is produced in a way that could not be more authentic anywhere. Let alone better.
Konrad Salwey's wines are like their makers: strong in character but quiet. If you want to find out what they are made of, you have to get involved with them. You should definitely dare to do so. You will be rewarded with some of the finest wines Baden has to offer.
The Markgräflerland currently has so many discoveries in store for wine lovers, it's hard to know where to start. But there is no way you can miss Maximilian Greiner. CChasselas Gutedel), white Burgundy varieties or Pinot Noir - Greiner has mastered the whole spectrum. And also in the form of sparkling wine or rosé. Hardly anyone collected as many of our favourite wine trophies last year as he did.
Ludwig Knoll has radically changed his style with the conversion to biodynamics. The wines here have always been good. Today, however, Knoll's cellar produces some of the most complex, characterful and independent wines in all of Franconia. Wines the likes of which have never been seen along the Main.
We have known the winery for a while, but the recent leap in quality is striking. It goes without saying that the vineyards around Großwallstadt - about 12 kilometres north of Klingenberg - with their red sandstone weathered soils offer ideal conditions for the red Burgundy varieties. But it is not only the reds that attract attention. Riesling, Silvaner or white Burgundies are now also remarkably good here - even at the affordable base.
The Löwensteins' dry Rieslings in particular are so different from all the others that it is best to leave all ideas and expectations behind before you start to explore these wines. You will be rewarded with some of the most exciting, complex, profound Rieslings of the vintage - not only on the Mosel. And the TBA is out of this world anyway.
It is difficult to say anything new about Emrich-Schönleber. The winery has been world class for so many years, it is difficult to improve on it. Nevertheless, the sweet Rieslings are possibly more brilliant than ever; with the cool, extremely fine and yet gripping, abysmal Auf der Ley, which touches you to the core, perhaps the greatest of all dry Rieslings in the history of the winery was created here in 2019. And already the local wines are absolutely great.
Steffen and Andreas Rings have gradually developed their winery, founded in 2001, into an absolutely top-class operation. Today, the dry Rieslings from the chalky sites of Ungstein and Kallstadt are among the best wines in the country; the Saumagen is regularly outstanding. And the Pinot Noirs are following suit.
A stunning series, perhaps the best we have ever tasted from Kühns. Even the basic wine outshines much of what other houses offer as a top product.
Especially red wine lovers should take note of the Rebenhof. The Pinot Noirs are of a quality that we have never come close to experiencing here. This is a serious rival to the famous red wine producers of the region.
Oliver Spanier's wines from his home vineyard in the Wonnegau are often a little overshadowed by those from Kühling-Gillot, the winery on the Rhine front that his wife Carolin brought into the marriage. Yet it is not only the Rieslings that turn out great every year here; Burgundy varieties and Silvaner are also remarkably good. The winery's new flagship, however, is produced in the Palatinate, albeit only a few hundred metres over the border, in Zellertal. The two previous vintages of dry Riesling from the Zeller Kreuzberg can undoubtedly be counted among the greatest dry Rieslings. Yes: at all.
The winery is actually at home in Breisach in Baden, but Markovic sources part of his grapes from Rheinhessen, which is why there is some strikingly good Riesling from Siefersheim here. This resulted in the confusing situation that we actually had one and a half discoveries in Baden and half in Rheinhessen. So if you taste the completely independent "Quo Vadis" or the Kabinett from the Höllenberg, you can also taste the excellent Spätburgunder from Baden at the same time.
Albrecht Schwegler is the pioneer in Germany when it comes to first-class red wine cuvées in Germany. The flagship with the name "Granat" is already something of a legend, but even from the litre bottle here comes sophisticated red wine. Son Aaron has been running the winery with his wife Julia since 2009. Since then, not only have some excellent single-varietal red wines been added, but also Riesling and white Burgundy varieties, whose wines are getting better and better.
Eisele is so good that we wonder how this winery, certified organic since 2016, could have remained undiscovered by us for so long. Tight, multi-layered and substantial, but at the same time fresh and elegant red wines are produced here, the kind you have to look for a long time to find in this quality at such consumer-friendly prices.
On the steep slopes of the Valtellina, Dirupi produces some of the finest wines in the area: firm, complex and tart, with tight tannins but also freshness, elegance and bite. Absolutely first-class mountain Nebbiolo of a new generation.
The first Valtellina vintage was only produced on this old farm in 2015, which makes it all the more astonishing how good the wines here are already. And that doesn't just apply to the Nebbiolo of the DOC Valtellina. The white "Zerovero", made from 4 newly planted fungus-resistant grape varieties, is one of the best wines we have had from the so-called "PIWIs".
Giuseppe Rinaldi was a legend. And he has left us legendary Barolo once again with the 2016 vintage. This combination of power, density and complexity with a freshness and almost light-footed elegance that one would hardly think possible in wines of this weight class is only achieved by the few geniuses of the wine world.
Last year Tiefenbrunner presented us with an impressive series of top wines that we have perhaps never experienced here before. The wines noticeably buck the trend towards more and more alcohol, combine power with freshness and bite, and if anything seem even more expressive than in previous years.
There are five biodynamically produced wines from Tröpftalhof, and what we have tasted from here so far is consistently classy. Especially the two amphora wines "Barleith" from Cabernet Sauvignon and "Garnellen" from Sauvignon Blanc have taken our fancy. They inevitably have their own character and for many friends of South Tyrolean wines they will certainly take some getting used to, but for this very reason they are an enormous enrichment for the region.
The wines of Riecine are always quite powerful, but at the same time so beguilingly juicy, fresh and almost delicate that it is hard to resist them even when they are young. This is already true for the basic Chianti, but even more so for the three top cuvées. The 2016 versions are all simply stunning.
Dorli Muhr produces wines that you only notice what they are really made of after the second or third sip. This is also due to the fact that many wines taste so seductive right away that you hardly think about their true depth and complexity at first. Once you have recognised this, you can't get away from the wines.
After the conversion to biodynamics in 2006, not only the classics of the winery have become even more characterful; the special hobbyhorse of junior Manuel Ploder are the mash-fermented orange versions, which are then aged in 600-litre barrels or produced entirely in amphorae. And rightly so: because they are consistently great.
The Côte Rotie of Domaine Jamet are great classics: powerful, but without any heaviness, deep and tremendously complex, equipped for decades of maturity, although beguiling when young. The Condrieu is also stunning, one of the most lively, fresh and complex wines of the appellation. With all the admiration for the top wines, one almost forgets how good the basic wines are. Should not be made!
Since Maxime Gourdain took over the estate from his uncle in 2013, Domaine de Rosiers has increasingly developed into the absolute top wine estate on the northern Rhône. This is not only due to the three excellent Côte Rotie, led by the noble, tart, deep and decidedly complex "Bresset", but also to the Condrieu, whose 2018 vintage brings a freshness and precision that we can only find in the very best wines of the region.
Even though a lot has happened on the Greek wine scene in recent years, Stelios Kechris has not allowed itself to be overtaken in terms of quality. The winery is considered a specialist for Retsina, and the "Tear of the Pine" is still an exceptional example for this special wine style, but also the red wines as well as the whites produced without resin have class. And with the best price-performance ratio in all of Greece.
