The 2025 Mosel Trier Auction catalogue is now up at the following link,
[My link is not working properly- please see Michael’s direct link posted a couple of posts below.]
I would expect the Nahe to be posted any day. Both auctions are set for the first week of November. I have not seen anything on the Bernkasteler Ring- grateful for anyone who can share info there.
Three key takeaways from a quick review of the 2025 Mosel catalogue offering- primarily- the 2024 vintage,
Kabinett is king- 63% of the bottles to be offered this year are Kabinett.
After skipping the auction last year, this year Egon Muller will offer their 2023s, but no 2024s.
The offerings top out at the Auslese level. No BA, TBA or Eiswein on offer. It feels like those are getting rarer with each passing year.
Which ones? I am planning to go for my usual things this year- but there are not many serious German wine fans here in Dallas, so I am not privvy to the general mood around the auctions.
I usually receive the English version from Selbach along with their tasting notes in early Sept, so probably next week.
I wasn’t a buyer last year and probably won’t be this year either. That’s the great thing about auctions - you can cherry pick only the best vintages with zero downside.
Thank you Michael- my link for some reason took things back to another thread. I will try and fix it.
Quick update- Selbach just emailed all the catalogues so the Nahe and Der Ring (fka Bernkasteler) should be up soon.
Looking over Nahe and Der Ring I am noticing some serious drops in quantities on a few things. I am not sure where some people are getting the idea this is an off vintage (contrary to reports I have read - no personal experience yet), but even if that is the case and demand is down (which I was expecting anyway due to tariffs and economic concerns as others have cited)- with these kinds of quantities we could well see some price increases, and at the very least I would expect flat results against last year as the norm.
I like Donnhoff but do not often chase after them. However, Oberhauser Brucke at Auslese and above can be absolutely magical. The 2007 Auslese Auction GK remains one of the greatest wines I have ever tasted.
Spatburgunder has been interesting to follow. I have been buying almost all of them the last 2 years as more have come to auction. Last year the Adamswein, Axel Pauly and Chad Sauvage hammered for 52, 34 and 49 Euro, respectively. All got 4 stars. I have had the 21 Adamswein and it is not only really good, but unique and worthy of cellaring. I imagine as more of us start tasting these, they will go higher. A 5 star rating for Sauvage can only mean upside.
No past experience- but Thanisch + Doctor + TBA should be a very big combo.
Beyond that, I am a bit nervous about Auf der Lay. I get that every year, but this year the bottles offered went from 500 to 180. Finally getting some in bottle and not all mags starting with 2020 made it easier to pull the trigger- but that kind of supply crunch could send prices soaring.
The Schubertslay Piesport Spatlese from Keller really has my attention. With Egon Muller the Kabinett has tended to outperform the Spatlese, and so I wonder what will happen here. Guessing still 500+ Euro which puts it out of my plans- but tempting to place a reachable bid and see if I get lucky.
Overall looks to me like a really good year for pyramid bidding to ensure getting something, but also getting usual quantities if economic concerns are enough to overshadow the lower quantities on many of the wines.
I really can’t say. My guess is that some members have no interest, while others have had poor results in previous years and would rather not partake in it. Then there was the problem with frost damage in 2024.
I just now looked back to the 2018-2024 catalogues and can report that in years past between 15 and 17 wineries participated (for this purpose I am including Le Gallais in with Muller and not including situations where a name rarely seen pops up to sell a rare lot of something very old.)
The composition of who shows up changes of course, but 15-17 is a consistent range for recent years.
I hope it is due to the frost. The auctions are a wonderful thing and every year I make sure to buy at least one new thing I have not tried before. Not everyone is going to get a Keller response, and as good as the wines are there are other factors that contribute to those kinds of prices as is the case elsewhere in the wine world. There are still plenty of very nice prices for very lovely wines- and that is a great way to find new fans.
It would be a particular barrel or parcel that was set aside as being extra special. Some auction wines are only found at the auctions, but there are cases where a particular selection from a regular commercially released wine is set aside for the auctions. Sometimes Donnhoff issues an Oberhauser Brucke Auslese GK as well. I am not certain if from same spot as auction Eiswein, but I do not recall the two ever being offered in the same vintage/auction.
Sure enough I already have a 375 of the regular release lol. Forgot all about that.
The auction is labeled Mittwoch, so maybe the grapes they harvested on Wednesday instead of some other day that went into the regular cuvee? Who knows if it’s all that different from the regular release.