A brief guide to the most recent vintages, especially the M-S-R.
2007 Poor/Good. Tiny crop of high-grade wines, with lots of QBa's and Kabinetts. Low acidity wines, often with enhanced acidity, mostly for early drinking.
2006 Poor/Good. Significant problems, esp. rot. Many wines have a very 'grapey' nose, some good/great wines with lowish acidity, probably best for early drinking.
2005 Very Good/ Great. Again very ripe, but with quite a lot of botrytis. Beerenauslese and above esp. good, as the acidity actually rose as time went on, which is unusual.
2004 Very Good/Great. A rather average year surprisingly produced very ripe wines with very good concentration and fruity complexity and good acidity, but little or no botrytis. Great Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Eiswein. This is my favourite vintage of the last ten.
2003 Good. The hottest year ever gave huge super-ripe wines with lowish acidity - many say too low. This was the first vintage where it was legal to add acidity to wine in Germany, and several top winegrowers used this technique, often not very successfully.
2002 Good/Very Good. Some wines spoilt by a wet autumn, great Eiswein with great acidity.
2001 Very Good/Great. Little botrytis, wines with good ripeness and acidity, will have a long life, fresh and fruity.
2000 Poor, with significant rot, a few good wines.
1999 Good but not great wines with softish acidity, not generally for long keeping.
1998 Very good, especially in the lower Prädikats, and Eiswein. A lot of botrytis in some of the eiswein, which may not be showing yet.