For us, it’s an occasion to taste the entire lineup with a critic. We look forward to the reviews, even if the new vintage has already been allocated.
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That’s only correct when you don’t truly love the wine/winemaker.
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Excited to read this vintage report. I got W. Schaefer on pre-order and looking forward to picking up Falkenstein.
I’m falling in love with Stein as well – looking forward to the '23s (especially Alfer Holle)!
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Don’t sleep on the entire Stein line-up!
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Definitely looking forward to exploring the entire Stein lineup.
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I suspect Issue No. 71 of Mosel Fine Wines will be released today or tomorrow.
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How does one go about pre-ordering Willi Schaefer?
Just a prearrival offer from email. If you go on Winesearcher, I think you will be able to find some prearrivals there (especially if you have Pro).
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Congratulations to the Webers and Lars on the great scores from MFW. Looking forward to cracking open the '23 Falkensteins when they land in the States.
Speaking about the '23 vintage generally, happily surprised that the acidities seem pretty high (and that the yields were pretty good). Seems like a nice vintage.
Last thing: the Zilliken scores are a little eye-brow raising. Curious.
(And I need to go hunt down some Dr. Hermann…)
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I hope people finally start to pay attention to wines…
As for the MFW early conclusions about the vintage I agree 100% and wrote this for my Mythos Mosel notes also in other thread about 2023s: “But 2023 was also sensationally heterogeneous and difficult to handle: Do not buy blind!”. However as one can see the scores are also really high and consistent for producers who managed to handle growing conditions of the vintage right so best wines are also very good indeed!
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Congrats @Lars_Carlberg even if MFW still does not get Kabinett Trocken!
Speaking of Kabinett Trocken, I can’t wait to try the Julian Haart Kabinett Trocken!
It has been an expensive morning!
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Very romantic view. Nothing wrong with that, but also nothing wrong with loving good wine and looking for the best.
Yes, in my opinion they don‘t get dry Rieslings in general
I’m only interested in the dry Whites and GG. Only a few dry German riesling were reviewed and I was hoping to read about Dönnhoff but only some Mosel were reviewed.
But the dry white vintage message was a bit worrying as it sais that some great wines were made but in general this style proved the most difficult of the vintage as the wines “…can be thin and light…”. I think this refers to all German dry whites and not only Mosel?
So until I know more there is for me personally no rush to pre-book anything.
Well it’s Mosel fine wines so prädikat wines are probably their main focus as it should be and while I really love good kabinett trocken or honest dry estate rieslings I understand those are quite hard to review within lineup where 8 of 10 wines are kabinett and up especially when in young stage. MFW also releases annual GG reviews which I think have been on point (pun intended) so I don’t quite get how they don’t “get” dry rieslings in general…
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Had the Dr. Hermann Sonnenuhr Kabinett a few weeks back. Didn’t find it very interesting. Don’t get the 93 score personally. But probably just not my style.
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I agree. Kabinett Trocken is a lost art form in my opinion and hard to review. In my Kabinett Trocken offer I used the music analogy to describe them as the “Music is the space between the notes” This is Kabinett Trocken! Hard to rate space or silence : )
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Kabinett trocken is not about the points and it’s hard to describe but once you taste and find out what’s the deal you are hooked 
.
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It might sounds more romantic than it is.
For many varieties/wines/wineries (except the extreme bad vintages) you many times don’t know what the best vintage is when you buy a wine anyway. And what seems or you expect to be the best doesn’t always turn out to be the best. Not to mention preference (what is the best vintage with different preferences?)…
The wines change over time with enough room for surprises and rather than being romantic, it’s a realization overtime that keeps me humble and not dogmatic about vintages.
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I was quite surprised to see the MFW summary putting 2023’s acidity at ‘high’.
The graph in the latest issue has the 2023 vintage tracking lowest of the comparator vintages. Very close to 2020 - a bit below if anything. And the 2020 vintage was rated ‘low’ for acidity.
A few recent vintages are missing from that graph. In fact, 2020 (and therefore 2023) was close to 2018 and 2019 - here’s the 2020 graph, showing it sitting between 2018 and 2019.
Yes, some wines are acidic in this vintage. Hofgut Falkenstein certainly were. But I don’t have an overall impression of high acidity.
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