April 28, 2016 | News | Vintages | Events
We tasted many 2015 wines at the VDP.Weinbörse Mainz earlier this week. Here our first thoughts on this vintage pre-hyped like few others before.
The VDP.Weinbörse is organized by the VDP.Die Prädikatsweingüter, the grower association which regroups some 200 of the best wine Estates in Germany. This fair for professionals is held every year, at the end of April. It allows member Estates to showcase their first wines from the latest vintage, i.e. 2015 this year for white wines.
Overall, ProWein in March always proves too early for any meaningful input on the latest vintage as many wines are still in cask, others are bottle sick, etc. However, the April timing of the VDP.Weinbörse allows for a good general feel for the latest vintage, even if it is often still too early for a proper review of any individual wine.
Rarely have we seen so much anticipative raving from winemakers, grower associations and merchants alike. Comparisons were made with some of the greatest vintages ever, including with the magical 1971. The ludicrous rule “If Bordeaux has a good vintage, Europe has a good vintage” fuelled the heat. The result: Some readers were asking us about the new vintage already by February!
So is there some truth to all the hype around 2015? Is it justified? The answer so far is “Yes ... but”. Here the key facts in a nutshell:
Of course, any such comment needs to be taken with the usual grain of salt when confronted with glorified generalization.
We are looking forward to diving into proper Estate visits and seeing what this potentially fascinating 2015 vintage has really in store for us! We anticipate to have Part I of our detailed 2015 Vintage Report ready as usual, by the end of June.
In the meantime, why not refresh your memory on the 2015 growing conditions as they unfolded or revisit the stunning successes from the 2014 vintage? Enjoy the read!
© Text by Mosel Fine Wines "The Independent Review of Mosel Riesling ... and beyond!"
Disclaimer: Mosel Fine Wines is an independent publication and has no commercial relationship with any Estate, association or organization featured in this article.
