Indeed. Since 2001 I’m not sure there are any “always avoid” vintages for German Rieslings (assuming reasonably good producers). I’ve had some lovely wines from “weaker” vintages like 2006, 2010, 2013, 2014, etc. This board unsurprisingly tends to focus on the best vintages (and producers) though.
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Which makes you a vintage drinker, rather than a wine drinker.
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That had me thinking a bit, and I decided that I too was a vintage drinker. But more importantly, I am a value drinker. Off vintages are never priced low enough to offset the fact that they are less interesting than great ones. For most of my wine buying years, the difference was relatively small, my budget limited, so they made no sense to buy.
A quick glance at my inventory confirmed it. As a Bordeaux drinker, I have only a handful of bottles from 2003, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2017. My 2019 purchases is fifteen times the combined total of bottles from those years. But then I have relatively small numbers of well regarded great vintages such as 2009 and 2015. I find them overly rich, and for the most part ponderous. Again exceptions apply.
This is not to say there are not well made, even great wines made in off years. And more importantly, vintages such as 2002, 2004, 2011 etc will drink well far earlier than the “great” vintages, and if you are just starting, they will give you both insights into a chateau, and also you something to drink in the short term.
The point is, David, each of us are motivated by different needs and experiences. Yes, guilty as charged, I am a vintage drinker, but not dogmatically one. It’s all about choices based on a limited budget. I try and husband my resources to maximize my pleasure.
I’m not sure what that means as vintage is a critical component of each bottle of wine. I’m new to the game, but I’ve tasted about 2500 wines since 2020 and I’ve come to the current conclusion that the great vintages offer an experience that is not just fractionally better than the lesser vintages, but often exponentially better. Maybe my opinion will change again later, but that’s where I find myself currently. It’s not that I can’t appreciate a bottle of '02, it just will never have that electricity and wow factor of the great vintages.
That’s a less than accurate summary of my statement to put it mildly. I did say 02 was soft in the sense that it’s accessible and has been tasting fully mature for a few years now at least. But I actually specifically said I wouldn’t classify them as over the hill. And it doesn’t have the acid of the better vintages which is true. All that was to say I didn’t see any need to hold that 02 GKA any longer trying to wait for some future better drinking window, not an indictment on the 02 vintage as a lost cause or something.
Yeah, and isn’t it often the case that vintages that are pronounced weak and soft at release turn out to be fantastic after developing in bottle (I’m looking at you, 1997)?
And, as you say, there are so many gems to be found in the “off-vintages” (and one person’s off-vintage is another person’s top vintage – just look at all of the 2021 discussion)
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I think now would be a good time to give it a try if you like, but no rush to drink it. My most comparative TN- but 14 years old- is for one of their 2007 Auslese. It is part of a batch of old TNs I have not uploaded to CT yet, so it is pasted below from my private records. Not a perfect comparison- but will give you something to consider.
More recently I have had the 2002 Fritz Haag and Willi Schaefer Auction Auslesen (those notes are on CT) and both are ready to go with time in hand. The 2002 vintage was quite good- and is in full sail now for the most part. I cannot think of any 2002 I have tried that needs holding much longer.
Generally speaking, I think Emrich-Schonleber’s sweet wines show more in youth that many of their peers, but have a similarly long life.
[Note from 2009 to give something of a reference point]
2007 Emrich-Schonleber Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Auslese
pale champagne/yellow color, insane stony nose, light floral tones, on the palate sexy ripe citrus and wet stones, racy and playful yet with a firm mineral and acid core underneath, interestingly- not as sweet as the Schafer-Frohlich Spatlese GK is tonight and more in line with one would expect from Auslese, great length, lemon notes, with time a very pure and beautiful Riesling, lovely stone notes, when it comes to mineral expression I am starting to think this estate is about as good as it gets.
(*****), 2017+ long life but I think it will come together sooner than the Schafer-Frohlich Spatlese GK
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02 was a soft vintage lacking acid. I have had some 02s recently that weren’t entirely over the hill, but had seen better days a few years ago.
In your post you say the 2002s you’ve had have seen “better days a few years ago,” which would typically mean you think 2002s are declining.
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Well honestly I meant that I wondered if they had seen better days a few years ago as I hadn’t tasted them then. Either way I think it was pretty clear that sentence wasn’t making a definitive statement on the entire 02 vintage at all, just some anecdotal evidence from some recent bottles to suggest he should feel good about opening that bottle soon.
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I was trying to be nicer than cherry picker. Apparently you just didn’t get it.
Thanks for your rundown, Alex.
It might be worth pointing out that J.J. Prüm vinifies in stainless-steel tanks, not wooden barrels.
As far as I know, Egon Müller’s Kabinett Alte Reben comes from a well-placed parcel nicknamed “Breiten Weinberg” in the place-name Im Besten Scharzberg. It’s the last remaining block still trained on single wooden stakes in Scharzhofberg. The ungrafted vines are said to be 100 years old. This roughly 2-ha parcel is occasionally shown to visitors. Sadly, the upper half appears to be completely ravaged by phylloxera. A few years ago, Egon Müller grubbed up old vines in “Knipp”—i.e., in the place-name In Pergentsknoepp, which is higher up the slope and faces southwest. The parcel lies fallow. He has a total of 8.5 ha in different parts of Scharzhofberg.
I’ve read some recent reports about Florian Lauer “blending casks” in certain vintages for his Ayler Kupp Kabinett wines or keeping them separate in other vintages, but I’m pretty sure that Florian only ferments some of his dry and dry-tasting wines in one of his eight Fuder casks. Most of his production is fermented in tanks.
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I can’t justify the price but the Egon Muller AR is a clear step up from the regular and over time the difference is even greater.
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The Alte Reben is a true single cask. In the 2016 vintage, he had two different casks of Scharzhofberger Kabinett Alte Reben—an auction bottling and a bottling that was sold to restaurants in Germany. The latter might have come from the parcel nicknamed “Knipp.”
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What a strange thing to say. Vintages are just one out of an almost endless amount of factors that can come into consideration when deciding what to drink for most people?
Just like grapes, soil, winemaking techniques, vineyard approaches and so on shapes a wine and defines if it is something for us, then the vintage certainly does so to. Why am I not a wine drinker just because I don’t really see a reason for drinking some vintages I find less interesting than others?
Couldn’t maintain that niceness, eh? 
No reason to! 
Mosel Wine Merchant imported various 2002s, including a few from Stein. Ulli offered us a 2002 Bremmer Calmont Auslese, as well as a 2002 Ürziger Würzgarten Spätlese and 2002 Erdener Treppchen Spätlese. We also selected a 2002 Kaseler Dominikanerberg Sekt halbtrocken from C. von Nell-Breuning.
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The nonauction 2022 Scharzhofberger Kabinett from Egon Müller sells for 190 euros (retail price) in Germany.
I’m betting those wines will be at peak for several years without any risk of decline.
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In Trier, Yong Yong has that other nonauction 2016 Scharzhofberger Kabinett Alte Reben on the wine list.
Yong stopped buying wines from Egon Müller a few years ago, because the prices have gone up so much.
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