I’m fairly new to German Riesling, and not familiar with this “star” rating. Can someone explain what it indicates? Is it related to must weight? Quality? Something else?
It’s not regulated by law, but it’s used to designate higher quality (and usually/historically higher ripeness). I see it most often on Auslese, where more stars will also typically equal more botrytis. I believe it would be very uncommon to see more than three stars on a label. It’s pretty much an alternative labeling method to the gold capsule and long gold capsule, if you’re familiar with that.
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I’ve never seen a Trocken at only 10%! Can’t wait to try it. 
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Falkenstein has also some kabinett trockens around those levels but that’s about it. Müllen is very skilled wine maker as most dry middle Mosel wines at those numbers would taste very unripe / unbalanced but somehow these don’t.
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That’s true. The Webers have had Kabinett trockens at 10 percent alcohol, but these wines tend to be between 10.5 and 11 percent alcohol in most vintages.
I preferred the various old labels on regular flute bottles from Müllen. He later switched to the extra-tall bottles with his new design. Anyhow, I opened a bottle of 2023 Hühnerberg Kabinett* trocken after work. It has 11 percent alcohol. In 2023, he produced a lot of different dry Prädikat wines (including several Kabinett trockens), only one off-dry wine, and plenty of higher-end sweet wines, but no residually sweet Kabinett wines. He hopes to produce some Kabinetts in the 2024 vintage.
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Gosh I hate those extra tall bottles. So many now using them.
Oh, and the extra heavy bottles some use for GG. Yuck!!
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You’re not the only one. I’ve been writing about this for a long time. Even before I created my website in 2012. It’s funny that Terry Theise is pointing this out to readers now.
There are basically two flute bottles—the 330 and 350 mm. These come in dark green, antique green, antique blue, and brown, among other colors. Mosel bottles are typically dark green, and Rhine bottles are brown. Starting in the early aughts, more producers began to use the 350-mm bottles mostly for their high-end dry wines; some bottle all their wines in this extra-tall bottle. It hearkens back to an older era when the bottles were this tall for a period of time and appeals to certain consumers. The VDP has recently come up with a lighter 350-mm bottle with GG embossed on the glass. I was a little surprised that Selbach-Oster switched to the 350-mm flutes in antique green with gold capsules for its GGs and other high-end dry and off-dry wines.
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On December 8, Johannes Weber will be in Chicago for the RieslingKenner fifth annual Hofgut Falkenstein charity event. He will be pouring his 2023s imported by Robert Houde Wines. David Schildknecht will be there as well.
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The top ten 2023 Riesling Kabinetts in the newly released Vinum Weinguide Deutschland. Three of the top four are from Hofgut Falkenstein. That’s wild!
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Congrats to you and the Webers! The real surprise there is the Schäfer-Fröhlich.
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Tasting those 10 wines at one time is now on my bucket-list. 
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Thanks!
Why surprising? Felseneck Kabinett is fine in any vintage. What I find surprising is lack of surprises. Despite having cut back on my (mostly dry) Riesling buying, I still got 7/10. Does that prove my impeccable taste (I would be OK with that!), or rather that top ratings tend to go to the same, established estates?
Not to diminish HF‘s success of course. Congratulations Lars. I have Kugel Peter in the glass right now, excellent stuff.
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Well I love Schäfer-Fröhlich and have over 1000 bottles in my cellar and love Felseneck. But if you look historically the Kabinetts although they have been rated well have not typically been rated the highest. Just for the heck of it I looked at the Wine Advocate and Stephen rated the 2021 Kabi 91 and the GG 99-100. I am being very specific when I say it is surprising to see a SF Kabi rated the highest.
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Thanks, Maciej. Kugel Peter is something of an insider’s wine at Hofgut Falkenstein. The 2021 is one of my favorites.
Kugel Peter is a well-placed parcel of old vines, even though we don’t designate it as “Alte Reben,” adjoining Gisela.
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