General German Wine Aging Recommendations

I know aging is dependent on the producer and consumer’s personal taste, but what general aging do you recommend for Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese? I’ve noticed a drop-off in quality Qualitätswein over a few years but what about the others?

I generally like 10-12 years old as a starting point for below Auslese level.

For all those categories it depends on the producer. I have not issue with aging Estate Riesling or Kabinett for 10-20 years. Spatlese can easily go 30+, and a well stored Auslese is essentially immortal.

Overall I drink QbA type wines any time. Kabinett I tend to start in on from 7-8 years post vintage, and Spatlese/Auslese after 12-15 years.

David, I am too damned impatient!! But you are right; with age they get better, and some can last nigh on forever.

German wines taste wonderful young with beautiful ripe fruit. But, they also age wonderfully, as above. I recommend buying some to drink young and others to age. Producers like Schloss Lieser and others make wonderful wines that are not from specific vineyards that are wonderful for drinking young. Then, age wines from top vineyards.

And try a QBA from Grunhaus to find one that ages quite well.



I agree with these guidelines. I’m sipping the remains of a 375 ml 1998 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Auslese opened two weeks ago with Keith Levenberg, Jay Miller, Asher Rubinstein and Leo Frokic. It is singing more beautifully than it did on day 1, but it has many years ahead of it.

I think for any good quality Kabinett or higher level, the longer the better. Somewhere around 15-20 years old is where they usually start getting really good, where they transition from a tasty beverage into a real wine experience.

I would just add that it depends upon the producer and vintage. Another consideration is that free SO2 levels in bottled wine have been drastically reduced in the last 20 years. I would say that the average still hovers around 50 mg/L free for Kabinett to Spätlese where it used to be quite a bit more. Even the Germans are starting to feel the pressure from distributors and private customers who would rather drink wines on release than cellar them like the old days. We’ll see what that does to the aging curve going forward.

Cheers,
Bill

Most German wine lovers drink Riesling on the younger side. QbA within the first 3 years, Kabinett within the first 5, Spätlese within the first 10, Auslese within the first 15 years. Großes Gewächs within the first 15 years. Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese can age for 50 years. All depending on style, vintage and COLD STORING.

Taste is a personal thing. But most German wine producers I know drink their wines when they are still fresh without loosing energy.

Good point on the SO2 levels. When an individual producer starting lowering SO2 is variable, so the ramifications are going to take a long time to play out.

Five guys couldn’t finish off a 375? Smh.

there was a little bit of other wine on the table.

not taking possible reduced levels of sulphur into account (because I don’t know how to do that) one of my favorite wines last year was a 1973 JJ Prum WS Kabinett. But a lot depends on your taste. Not everyone at the table loved it quite as much as I did.

I seem to agree with most people here. I like to drink my Kabinett with at least 10-15 years’ bottle age. However, from top producers these can age effortlessly and develop a fantastic savoury complexity with 30+ years. I’ve had some 1983 kabinetts over the last year or so that were utterly wonderful (from the likes of Robert Weil, Schloss Reinhartshausen, Othegraven, and Kesselstatt (though a 1993 Josephshöfer was still too young!)). I would say that 20-40 years is about right for both Spätlese and Auslese from good MSR/Rheingau producers (have tried a few '03s and '04s lately that have been unpleasantly young). All but a few producers from Rheinhessen/Nahe/Franken drink better a little sooner in my opinion. In terms of BA/TBA, I don’t think I would consider drinking one from post-1976 vintages yet. Eiswein is of course a bit of an oddity as it often drinks well at a much younger age than the former.

Maybe most German German wine lovers, but serious American devotees prefer them with more age than that, I think, as the posts here suggest.

That is a very good point. I have to say, though, that the 01s and 02s – the vintages I hold the most of – seem to me to be following a fairly traditional trajectory. My sense from tastings over several decades is that the big reduction in sulfur usage occurred sometime before 2000. But perhaps you’ll tell me that’s not right.

The sulfur reductions were certainly not all prior to 2000. Rovani went on a sulfur tirade in the WA, regarding either the 2002 or 2003 vintage (I don’t recall which), complaining of “illegal levels” of sulfur.

I think a lot of us loved that wine - Adrian, Seth, and I certainly did! (Seth and I only commented that we thought the '75, which we’d both had a couple months prior, was even more striking/wonderful in terms of its depth and intensity, but we still loved the '73.) Of course, we were also somewhat spoiled for choice that evening.

Kabinett can certainly go a while, and I’ve had amazing ones from Zilliken, Grunhaus, Muller, and Christoffel among others with 20+ years of age that showed no signs of slowing down.

BTW Jay, did you ever get some of that '14 Lieser WS Kabinett?

Most German wine lovers drink mostly dry wines. I think traditionally made German wines with some residual sugar tend to age better. Also, the Pfalz is more popular in Germany while the MSR wines are more popular in the US. Again, I think MSR wines tend to age better.

Well, I’m not sure I’d rely on Rovani! I didn’t even recall him reviewing German wines.

It seems he has a particular aversion to sulfur: http://forums.winespectator.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6826053161/m/911103152

And with regard to Alsatian riesling he claimed “petrol” aromas came from unripe grapes, a view that was disputed by a number of people: https://www.guildsomm.com/stay_current/discussion_forums/f/109/t/170

On eBob years ago he also put forward that incoherent set of explanations for premox in white Burgundies. So I have zero faith is his diagnostic skills when it comes to wine chemistry.

In tastings, I noticed a big difference between (a) the 80s and early 90s and (b) the late 90s and 2000s, when far fewer wines had heavy sulfur notes. The change was dramatic enough that I asked German winemakers about it in the early 2000s.

Perhaps more reduction has taken place since then, but it was pretty marked by then.

As always it depends on what you are drinking.

Grunahus didn’t drop much until post-2003 IMO. With Prum it was really noticeable post-2004 for me.

I never had sulfur issues with Donnhoff, and my experience goes back to 1994 new releases.

To name a few.