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Welcome to my tasting notes of fine German wines, mostly from the Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer. It is my personal rating of wines I have tasted, and as such follows my preference for traditional sweet German wines: I do not drink dry or semi-dry wine, with the occasional exception of sekt.
A few words about my rating system are essential: I have rated each wine out of 20, but if you buy any of these wines do not necessarily expect any two wines with the same score to taste alike! A spätlese or auslese from the Saar or Ruwer is likely to be very different from say a Zeltinger, a Piesporter, or an Ürziger spätlese or auslese, even if from the same producer and the same year, and even if I have given them the same score, and I have therefore identified those wines from the Saar and Ruwer. I have tried to give a clear indication of the flavour and style of each wine while trying to avoid the flights of fancy that some wine writers enjoy. I would regard a wine rated at 12 points as being barely worth drinking; I do not usually bother to mention wines I rate at less than 14 points, but by the time we get to 17 points these are very serious wines indeed. Obviously, a spätlese or auslese rated at 17 points will again be very different from an eiswein rated at 17 points, even if from the same weingut, the same vineyard, and the same year. Some of these wines may no longer be available. All wines are Riesling unless otherwise stated.
Of course wines from different vintages are likely to have very different characteristics. Thus 2001 wines were characterised by both fairly high acidity and good ripeness, 2002 was also very ripe, but with a rather wet autumn that diluted some wines, 2003 was exceptionally hot, giving ultra-ripe wines with lowish acidity, 2004 produced concentrated wines with both highish acidity and extreme ripeness but no botrytis, and 2005 wines were again very ripe with lots of botrytis but slightly low acidity. So, don't expect any two wines even from the same winemaker, same vineyard, but different years to necessarily be even vaguely similar, especially when botrytis is taken into account. After a few years aging, a wine made from botrytised grapes is likely to turn into a 'honey-monster', a huge wine with the flavour of honey, so typical of botrytis. This will be totally different from a wine made in a year with little or no botrytis, which will be of the 'fresh and fruity' style. Personal preferences play a huge part, and although I certainly have my personal preferences I have tried to ignore them when it comes to 'fresh and fruity' or 'botrytised' questions. Only you can say which you prefer.

I am not a wine professional: fine German wines are my pleasure, not my work. I do not, however, think that this hinders me in any way, for where a professional may well be asked to grade 75-100 wines in a morning, and must of necessity spit them out, I actually drink these wines, and can spend as long as I wish savouring each one, a luxury that the professional simply could not afford. Indeed, I have drunk several bottles of most of these wines, and in some cases several cases of them.... I have taken part in large tastings of up to 100 wines in a morning, but all the tasting notes here are from drinking at least one bottle, usually several.

This website is free to use, and to date I have paid for all these wines myself, though if any winegrowers want to send me samples of their wines for rating I will be more than happy to oblige, on the understanding that I will make it clear that these wines were free samples. Contact me for my postal address.

I have included details of winegrowers addresses, websites, etc, whether or not they will send small amounts of wine (a case) to Britain, delivery charges, and if they accept credit cards (sadly most German wine-makers insist on payment by International Bank Transfer - consult your Bank for details including charges). Please note, however, that prices stated here may be different from prices available for export: many of the wines here were bought in Germany, either at the Weingut itself, or in shops. If any winegrower would like their contact details to be included, that is entirely free, even if I have never tasted their wines, or if they are from regions other than the Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer.