German Großes Gewächs Overview: 2017 and Earlier

At the end of August, I participated in the preview of Großes Gewächs wines in Wiesbaden. My reporting on the tastings has been held up by subsequent tastings in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Franken (Franconia), and Austria, but later today the first of my notes will go up.

The vintage generally looks excellent for Riesling, especially for the Pfalz, Rheingau, and many Mosel-Saar-Ruwer producers. The Nahe, Rheinhessen, and Franken also look good for Riesling. The Silvaners from Franken additionally are quite good. Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) is a bit more mixed, but there are some very good ones. Weiß Burgunder (Pinot Blanc) was not as interesting as usual.

As in the past few years, many producers have come to realize that late August is too soon to release and evaluate the wines, and so they are holding the wines back an additional year. This means that for whites, many of the wines reviewed are 2016, rather than 2017, and for Spätburgunder, many are earlier than 2016.