Best German Wines – Wein-Plus.de Awards 2011

Picture: Nahe Regional Award Winners Schlossgut Diel - Christian G. E. Schiller with Armin Diel and Daughter Caroline Diel in front of the Schlossgut

Wein-Plus.de is the leading German online Wine Guide. Its data base contains 50.000 wine reviews of 2500 winemakers. Since 1999, Marcus Hofschuster and his team have been tasting wines, describing them and grading them. Wein-Plus.de has 200.000 subscribers who pay Euro 20 (US$ 25) per year to use the data base of the Wein-Plus.de online wine guide.

This year’s Wein-Plus.de awards were announced a few months ago at the ProWein trade fair in Duesseldorf, Germany. I have reported about the 2010 Wein-Plus.de Awards here.

The Wein-Plus.de Awards

There are three different categories of awards.

First, regional awards for the top producer of each of the major wine regions. The winemaker with the highest average ranking of his or her wine portfolio wins the award. Germany’s wine regions differ markedly in terms of size.

Then, there is a Rising Star Award. This is the winemaker with the largest improvement in the average score this year.

Finally, an award is given to the best wine co-operative of the year.

Germany's Wine Regions

Before moving to the winners, here is a list of the regions in terms of their size (in hectares).

Picture: Wine Regions of Germany

Five large regions: Rheinhessen 26000 hectares, Pfalz 23000 hectares, Baden 16000 hectares, Wuerttemberg 12000 hectares, Mosel 10000 hectares.

Three medium-size regions: Franken 6000 hectares, Nahe 4000 hectares, Rheingau 3000 hectares.

Five small regions: Saale Unstrut 700 hectares, Sachsen 500 hectares, Hessische Bergstrasse 500 hectares, Mittelrhein 500 hectares, Ahr 300 hectares.

Regional Awards (the winermakers with the highest average score of the major German wine regions):

Mosel: Maximin Grünhaus - Schlosskellerei C. von Schubert

Nahe: Schloßgut Diel

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Caroline Diel at Schlossgut Diel. Interestingly, Armin and Caroline Diel also make world class Riesling in Washington State, the Poet's Leap Riesling. I have visited the winery, Long Shadows Vintners. See here.

Mittelrhein: Weingut Florian Weingart

Pfalz: Weingut Friedrich Becker

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Helena Becker - the daughter of friedrich Becker - in Frankfurt am Main at the Premier Cru Wine Bar. See here.

Franken: Weingut J. Störrlein & Krenig

Rheingau: Weingut Josef Leitz

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Leitz Winemaker Eva Fricke in Ruedesheim. Johannes Leitz is Germany’s Winemaker of the Year, Gault Millau WeinGuide 2011. See here.

Ahr: Weingut Meyer-Näkel

Wuerttemberg: Weingut Rainer Schnaitmann

Baden: Weingut Salwey

Rheinhessen: Weingut Wittmann

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Philipp Wittmann in Mainz

Aufsteiger des Jahres – Shooting Star of the Year: Weingut Heiner Sauer, Pfalz

Winzergenossenschaft des Jahres – Wine Co-operative of the Year: Winzer Sommerach - Der Winzerkeller, Franken




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