Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Germany’s Top 100 Winemakers – Handelsblatt online and Vinum 2012

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Gunter Kuenstler, Weingut Kuenstler in Hochheim, Rheingau.

See more:
The Wines of Franz Kuenstler from Hochheim, Rheingau, Germany  

Every year, towards the end of the year, Handelsblatt online and Vinum release a list of the Top 100 Winemakers in Germany, this year for the 27th time. This is a pretty good list of Germany’s Top 100 Wine Estates. Overall, I would say, right on the dot, although there are always wineries where you wonder why they are on the list and others where you wonder why they are not on the list.

Handelsblatt is the German equivalent of the Financial Times and Vinum is a wine journal. The list is compiled by a group of wine journalists: Pit Falkenstein (Chair), Christina Fischer, Carsten Henn, Rudolf Knoll and Joel Payne.

Here are postings on schiller-wine on previous years lists.
Germany’s Top 100 Winemakers – Handelsblatt online and Vinum 2011
The 100 Best German Winemakers 2010 – Handelsblatt online and Vinum 

Out

Here are the 4 winemakers that were dropped from the list this year.

Schloss Neuweier (Baden)
Koehler-Ruprecht (Pfalz)
Muenzberg (Pfalz)
Langwerth von Simmern (Rheingau)

In

Here are the 4 newcomers and returners.

Bischel (Rheinhessen)
Winter (Rheinhessen)
Gut Hermannsberg (Nahe)
Rings (Pfalz)

Picture: Gut Hermannsberg (Nahe)

Continued Presence for 27 Years

A dozen winemakers have been continuously on the list for 27 years. I find this very impressive. Here is the list.

Salwey
Dr. Heger
Rudolf Fuerst
Toni Jost
Schloss Saarstein
JJ Pruem
Egon Mueller
Schlossgut Diel
Oekonomierat Rebholz
Mueller-Catoir
Fuhrmann-Eymael
Dr. Buerklin-Wolf

Picture: Paul Fuerst, Weingut Rudolf Fuerst, at Schloss Johannisberg, Germany. The 2009 Weingut Rudolf Fürst Centgrafenberg Spätburgunder Grosses Gewächs was ranked #4 overall and was #2 of the German wines at the recent Pinot Noir Tasting in London, where German wines performed very strongly: The Tim Atkin Pinot Noir Taste-Off of October 2011: Germany Versus the Rest of the World - German Red Wines Show Stong Performance 

Organic and Biodynamic Wine Making

About 20 of the top 100 winemakers follow organic or biodynamic principles in the vineyard, indicated in a separate column.

Dry versus Sweet

The table also gives the share of dry wines in total production for each winery. There are obvious regional differences, with the Mosel region clearly standing out in terms of a large share of sweet wines in total output. For most of the Mosel estates, sweet wines account for 50 % or more of the production, while it is the opposite in all other German wine regions.

Size

In terms of size, none of the wineries is large by international standards. About 20 have less than 10 hectares and about 20 have more than 30 hectares. The largest is Juliusspital with 172 hectar, followed by Dr. Buerklin Wolf with 90 hectares. The remaining 60 percent of the wineries are in the 10 to 30 hectares range.

The List of 1012

The list including all details is available in the internet. In previous years, it was free of charge, but this year, you have to pay 99 cents if you want to download the page http://www.handelsblatt-shop.com/downloads/die-100-besten-weingueter-p4335.html Here is a shortened version, the 100 winemakers that made it to the list.

AHR

J.J. Adeneuer
Deutzerhof
H.J. Kreuzberg
Meyer-Näkel
Nelles
Jean Stodden

Picture: Friedrich Becker from Weingut Becker in the Pfalz, Werner Naekel from Weingut Meyer-Naekel in the Ahr and Ludwig Kreuzberg from Weingut H.J. Kreuzberg in the Ahr (from right to left, in Berlin)

BADEN
Bercher
von Gleichenstein
Dr. Heger
Bernhard Huber
Andreas Laible
Josef Michel
Salwey
Reinhold Schneider
Seeger

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Joachim and Silvia Heger, Weingut Dr. Heger. Joachim Heger is the Gault Millau Weinguide 2013 Winemaker of the Year.

FRANKEN
Rudolf Fürst
Juliusspital
Horst Sauer
Rainer Sauer
Hans Wirsching

Picture: Horst Sauer in Berlin

MITTELRHEIN
Toni Jost Hahnenhof
Matthias Müller
Ratzenberger
Weingart

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Ulrike Weingart, Weingut Weingart, in Spay.

MOSEL-SAAR-RUWER
Clemens Busch
Clüsserath-Weiler
Grans-Fassian
Fritz Haag
Reinhold Haart
Heymann-Löwenstein
von Hövel
Kees-Kieren
Bernhard Kirsten
R. und B. Knebel
Schloss Lieser
Dr. Loosen
Mönchhof-Christoffel
Markus Molitor
Egon Müller-Scharzhof
Joh. Jos. Prüm
Schloss Saarstein
Willi Schäfer
C. von Schubert
Sankt Urbans-Hof
Selbach-Oster
Vollenweider
van Volxem
Dr. Weins-Prüm

Pictures: Christian G.E. Schiller with Ernst Loosen, Weingut Dr. Loosen, in Washington DC and with Clemens Busch, Weingut Clemens Busch, in Puenderich in the Mosel Valley

See more:
The Doctor Made a House Call - A Tasting with Ernst Loosen, Weingut Dr. Loosen, at MacArthur Beverages in Washington DC, USA

NAHE
Dr. Crusius
Schlossgut Diel
Hermann Dönnhoff
Emrich-Schönleber
Göttelmann
Gut Hermannsberg (neu/wieder)
Korrell Johanneshof
Schäfer-Fröhlich

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Peter Crusius, Weingut Dr. Crusius at Kloster Eberbach

PFALZ
Bassermann-Jordan
Friedrich Becker
Dr Bürklin Wolf
A. Christmann
Faubel Ullrichshof
Fuhrmann-Eymael
Knipser
Kranz (neu)
Philipp Kuhn
Theo Minges
Georg Mosbacher
Müller-Catoir
Ökonomierat Rebholz
Rings
Siegrist
Dr. Wehrheim
von Winning

Picture: Stuart Pigott and Jancis Robinson with Steffen Christmann of Weingut Christmann in Berlin

RHEINGAU
J.B. Becker
Georg Breuer
Johannishof Eser
Schloss Johannisberg
August Kesseler
Graf von Kanitz
Franz Künstler
Josef Leitz
Prinz
Schloss Schönborn
Josef Spreitzer
Schloss Vollrads
Weingüter Wegeler*
Robert Weil

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with August Kesseler, Weingut Kesseler, in Assmannshausen

See more:
A Pinot Noir Star: Visiting August Kesseler and his Weingut August Kesseler in Assmannshausen, Germany

RHEINHESSEN
Battenfeld-Spanier
Kühling-Gillot
Bischel (neu)
Dreißigacker
Keller
Wagner-Stempel
Winter (neu)
Wittmann

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Caroline Spnier-Gillot in Bodenheim

See also: 
The Wine Maker Couple H.O. Spanier and Carolin Spanier-Gillot, with Roland Gillot, Lead Wine Tasting of Kuehling-Gillot and Battenfeld-Spanier Wines at Weingut Kuehling-Gillot, Germany

SACHSEN
Zimmerling

WÜRTTEMBERG
Gerhard Aldinger
Ernst Dautel
J. Ellwanger
Karl Haidle
Rainer Schnaitmann

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Rainer Schnaitmann at Kloster Eberbach

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