The 100 Top Wines in Germany of 2008 - Weinwirtschaft

Picture: The New ECB Building - European Central Bank - in Frankfurt, Germany

The American Wine Spectator just published its Top 100 Wines List for the American market. Here is a similar list for the German market.

The list was put together by the wine journal WEINWIRTSCHAFT, which is read mostly by professionals and not by the wine consumer, as the American Wine Spectator is. It is a list of the most successful wines in the German wine market. Only wines that sold more than 10.000 bottles in 2008 were included in the contest. That left many of German’s top wines from smaller top wine makers out of the rating.

The criteria for the ratings are the tasting results and four other, mostly commercial criteria: The price-quality-ratio, the bottles sold, the views of the readers of the Weinwirtschaft and the marketing concept for the wine.

It is a bit like the Wine Spectator Top 100 list, where a below $20 wine from Washington State won this year.

Overall, the list is dominated by Old World wines, as the German consumers continue to be reserved vis-à-vis New World wines, lead by the assumption that mother nature plays a much smaller role in growing and making the wine in the New World than in the Old World. Not a single wine from the US made it to the list, although I typically find inexpensive American wines on the shelves of the large supermarkets when I am in Germany.

The red wines are dominated by Italy, with 20 of the 60 wines coming from there. Also, there are only very few German red wines, although the area growing red grapes is rapidly expanding in Germany. Only 4 wines are from Germany.

For the white wines, it is just the opposite. About half of the 40 wines are from Germany, with the 2007 Hochheimer Hölle Riesling Erstes Gewächs (Weingut Künstler, Hochheim) and the 2007 Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling Erstes Gewächs (Weingut Robert Weil, Kiedrich) taking the lead. Again, no American wines and just one wine from the New World, New Zealand.

The list reflects the wine consumer behaviour in Germany well. For white wines, you go for German, in particular Riesling, wines. For red wines, you look to other European countries, in particular France, Italy and Spain.

Here is a complete listing of the 100 Top Wines 2008.

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