Good afternoon all- hope everyone is well. It is finally auction season again with the Der Ring and Nahe sales scheduled for Friday and Saturday of this week. The Mosel auction has been delayed to May 2027 for reasons unknown (to me, anyway.) The website indicates a strategic realignment as the reason. However, the tasting notes from Mosel Fine Wines’ October issue do include most of the Mosel offerings- so you can at least get a preview of them concurrent with the wines being offered now.
If anyone is there live at any of the events, we all welcome your feedback plus any and all play by play feedback during the sales. I will be around this weekend and able to prepare and post summaries within 24 hours of each sale.
Nahe - November 8, 2025 - [Note- there is not a placeholder yet on youtube- but here is a link to some of the producer-specific intro videos that have been posted in recent days. I will put up the auction link as soon as I see it posted. https://www.youtube.com/@VDPWeingueter/videos ]
Curious to hear from others on expectations. For my part, I am anticipating that we will see pricing in line with last year now that the bubble that peaked with the 2022 auction has fully worked through. Maybe things will be a bit higher given the strong reputation of 2025 (though for me part I am a huge fan of 2024), or maybe a bit lower with all the grave social and economic issues on people’s minds around the world. The retail indicators I am seeing are not terribly indicative in any direction either. Here in Texas, Riesling availability is worse than it has been in years, and even the rare appearance of the likes of Schaefer or Emrich-Schonleber is borne out with sluggish sales. Yet in more competitive markets like NYC, favored wines seems to move very quickly despite higher prices.
We shall see- but either way I will be surprised if there are any dramatic variances from last year’s results. Which is to say- business as usual following quite a dramatic and singular pattern from the late 2010s through last year.
I think interest in German flared for a year or so in 2022, and has now returned to the normal lack of real interest. I know Tom and I love our great Rieslings, but they still remain a seriously undervalued.
I have three bids in for Friday, all inexpensive bottles. Nothing in for Saturday. Will have more in next Spring for the Grosser Ring. Looking forward to seeing how it goes!
As a whole Riesling is undervalued but the auctions not so much. In most cases it’s just a “prime” barrel of the same regular cuvée at a price 5-10x. The auction wines are good, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t found many that were actually worth the crazy multiple over the regular.
I said in most cases the auction wines are just a prime selection. The price delta is different for each wine and producer, obviously, but not insignificant. And I’ve definitely seen/paid 5-10x.
No you didn’t. You said “In most cases it’s just a “prime” barrel of the same regular cuvée at a price 5-10x”. Don’t backtrack…
Do you think the Schaefer Domprobst #5 is a ‘just’ a ‘prime selection’ over the #10? Maybe Falkenstein Gisela is a ‘prime selection’ over Ternes or Kugel Peter?
In an earlier thread, we talked about the delay in the VDP Mosel auction. Instead, the VDP Mosel is having a mini Mythos-Mosel-like tasting among its members in the Middle Mosel in mid-November.
Regarding the price discussion, I see German Riesling incl. the auction wines a bargain, espcially when you look to the prices in Burgundy. BTW, I saw some wine cartes from 1920 by the famous Hotel Adlon in Berlin and it was interesting to see that German Riesling was more expensive than Burgundy&Bordeaux.
BTW, it is also not often a prime selection of grapes regarding the auction wines. For example „Brücke“ by Dönnhoff, from this vineyard only auction wine. „Philippsbrunnen“ by Kuhn also only auction wine from this vineyard. Also „auf der Lay“ by E-S own parcel, „La Borne“ by Wittmann a parcel from Morstein. Schubertslay and Pettenthal by Keller, Top vineyards with little crop.
Hopefully, next year, there wont be any tarrifs in place and the USD will be a little stronger so it’ll make more sense for me to participate in the auctions again.
You probably already know this, but Gisela, Kugel Peter, and Ternes are distinct parcels of old vines situated on the same prime south-facing slope of Euchariusberg. We pick the grapes from each parcel all together. In other words, we make only one pass through the same parcel.
Just curious what leads you to this conclusion? Not saying it is either wrong or right. I follow German wine pretty closely and other than the overall negative trends facing the broader wine industry I have not seen any difference since 2022. 2022 was not a great vintage. 24 and 25 are definitely great. Many producers (e.g. Aufricht, Falkenstein, Keller, Vollenweider, Julian and Nadine Haart, Saalwachter, Kissinger, Dostert etc.) are heavily allocated and still sell out. My allocations of producers like Aufricht and for certain categories like German Chardonnay are miniscule.
Mosel Fine Wines gave Emrich-Schönleber’s 2025 Auf der Ley GG and Philipp Kuhn’s 2025 Philippsbrunnen GG each a 92+. They gave many non-auction dry German Rieslings a similar score. Wittmann’s 2025 La Borne Alte Reben wasn’t tasted.
