At the top, however, this uniformity at a high level does not prevail everywhere. Some of the top wines from 2019 seem to lack a little complexity and depth. After a convincing start, some of them remain conspicuously inconspicuous on the palate. We're not talking about understatement or special elegance and delicacy that just have to be tapped into; no, some nominally top Rieslings lack what distinguishes very good wine from great or even great. The reason for this is dryness. Where water is lacking, even the best winemaker cannot produce miracle wines from the best vineyard. There are limits to aromatic expression and concentration.
This can often be seen even within the assortment of individual producers in the clear differences between sites. For where there was no lack of water or the vines are old enough to supply themselves from greater depths even where younger vines were dying of thirst, stunning wines did indeed emerge in 2019. Some of them are undoubtedly among the greatest dry Rieslings we have encountered so far - and at times they skirt very close to the border of what one can still imagine as a great dry white wine. Or even reach it.
In the end, 2019 may not be the vintage that stands alone above all others in the last 50 years. But it doesn't have to be. After all, it has more than enough to offer to bring a tear or two of joy to the corners of the eyes of even the most demanding Riesling lovers.
We tasted around 1,150 dry Rieslings from Germany last tasting season, including older vintages, as more and more producers are now bringing their wines to market later.
Here we can only present the absolute top. We therefore strongly recommend that you also follow the links at the end of the individual lists, which lead to all the wines tasted with detailed descriptions as well as to their producers.