Germany 2010 Situated at the northern limit of vitis vinifera's historic range, 

Germany has by and large benefitted from global warming. Two thousand 

ten, however, was a much cooler, more classical vintage, with rain at 

harvest that presented growers with a multitude of challenges.&nbsp; More 

unusual, though, was the fact that acidity levels in the grapes remained

 high even as ripeness levels soared late in the growing season.&nbsp; In 

November, as the well-known estates on the Mosel were harvesting gold 

capsule ausleses, acidity levels were still higher than those normally 

associated with unripe grapes. Moreover, it was the smallest crop

 in a generation, with the German Wine Institute calculating total 

harvest at just over seven million hectoliters, approximately 25% less 

than in 2009, which was already a slightly short vintage. As the 

better estates had record sales in 2010, few had any 2009s left in 

stock.&nbsp; Given that shortage and the rising demand for riesling, pundits 

expected a slight hike in prices.&nbsp; However, with the current state of 

the economy, few producers were able to demand more for a bottle, 

forcing them for the second year in a row to tighten their belts.&nbsp; The 

small crop, however, was on strict allocation. "The small yield 

was principally due to the reduced fruit set caused by low temperatures 

at the time of the blossoming," explained Norbert Weber, president of 

the German Winegrowers' Association.&nbsp; However, rigorous selection during

 harvest after the cool summer and damp weather in August further 

shortened yields at the top estates.&nbsp; Although many producers harvested 

far too early, the patience of others was rewarded with a Golden 

October. Steffen Christmann, the president of the Verband 

Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) and estate owner in Gimmeldingen, 

spoke of the smallest vintage in decades.&nbsp; "The cool nights favored 

excellent aromatic composition, with bright crisp acidities," he noted.&nbsp;

 "The wines remind me of those from 2008 or, looking further into the 

past, perhaps 1996 or even 1990."&nbsp; Those were monumental vintages in the

 Pfalz, whence he hails.&nbsp; Difficult to appreciate in their youth, they 

have matured gracefully. &nbsp; Although many, if not most, of the 

2010s are at best mediocre in quality, what is good is extremely 

good--and especially at the level of the hundred or so producers 

featured in this article.&nbsp; Those few bunches that were harvested in late

 autumn still had thick skins and very little juice, but what a juice it

 was!&nbsp; The rieslings have concentration levels that are analytically 

higher than anything on record, packing intense flavors without being 

heavy, broad-shouldered or ostentatiously dense. Klaus-Peter 

Keller in the Rheinhessen also compares 2010 to 1996 because of the 

"concentrated acidities."&nbsp; His neighbor, Philipp Wittmann, the other 

star of that region, speaks of a vintage that played well only for 

late-ripening grapes like riesling in the finest sites.&nbsp; "The precocious

 varieties had to be harvested too early," he observed, "because the 

warm, humid weather in late August and early September had already 

induced rot." "The cool summer was probably due to the fine 

silica particles that were catapulted into the atmosphere by the volcano

 Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland in the spring," believes Gunter Künstler 

from Hochheim in the Rheingau.&nbsp; "It reminds me a bit of the summer in 

1980 after the explosion of Mount St. Helens in Washington.&nbsp; That 

vintage was also a small harvest." Even in well-drained sites in 

Rüdesheim at the western edge of the Rheingau, star producers like Josi 

Leitz thought in late September that 2010 might be a total wash-out.&nbsp; 

"The stunning weeks in October turned a potential disaster into an 

excellent vintage," he claims.&nbsp; Wilhelm Weil from the Robert Weil estate

 in Kiedrich in the Rheingau also sees similarities to either 1998 or 

1996, but with somewhat riper grapes and thus higher must weights in 

2010.&nbsp; Again, the bitter medicine to swallow was that the better estates

 brought in a maximum of two-thirds of a normal crop. Armin Diel 

in Burg Layen on the Nahe vividly describes the problem many producers 

faced.&nbsp; "On the same bunch, we had grapes that were unripe and others 

that were severely affected by botrytis," he concedes.&nbsp; "Without a 

severe selection, it was impossible to make good wines."&nbsp; While Werner 

Schönleber from Emrich-Schönleber further up the valley in Monzingen 

draws parallels to 1994, his colleague Tim Fröhlich from the 

Fröhlich-Schäfer estate in neighboring Bockingen likens the vintage to 

2001.&nbsp; These are both vintages that I enjoy drinking today. On 

the Mosel, Saar and Ruwer the opinions are even more upbeat.&nbsp; Given the 

high acidity levels, though, it was a better year for sweeter wines, 

which are in any case what this region generally does best.&nbsp; "And there 

are some magnificent noble late-harvest rieslings," adds Egon Müller 

from Wiltingen, whose Scharzhofberg vineyard fared extremely well in the

 unusual weather.&nbsp; Although here again comparisons with 1996 or 1990 are

 common, in particular because of the brisk acidities, neither of those 

vintages had such a wealth of pure botrytis. In short, the 2010s 

are less overtly full-bodied than those of 2009, characterized instead 

by crisp fruit and vitalizing acidity.&nbsp; As this is a style generally 

appreciated more by experienced wine lovers than by neophytes, casual 

consumers will need to choose especially carefully among the wines on 

offer--and, given the short crop, be prepared to pay a bit more for the 

finer bottles if they are able to find them. Other regions.&nbsp; In 

the full coverage of the individual regions below, I have focused on 

those producers and individual wines that should be available in the 

American market.&nbsp; Germany, though, has more to offer.&nbsp; The following 

paragraphs highlight regions that are in great demand domestically, but 

not often seen beyond the border. Baden, the region on the 

eastern banks of the Rhine across from Alsace, is the best example.&nbsp; 

With 40,000 acres of vineyards, making it Germany's third-largest 

growing region, it is far more popular domestically than the Mosel.&nbsp; 

Here, estates like Bercher, Dr. Heger (Rudi Wiest), Huber (Valckenberg),

 Salwey (Rudi Wiest) and Schneider make exceptional dry wines, in 

particular their Grosses Gewächs from pinot noir, pinot gris and pinot 

blanc, which are at the cutting edge of what these varieties can do on 

German soil.&nbsp; As always, Bernhard Huber made several of Germany's best 

pinot noirs, with his 2009 Wildenstein (95) and Schlossberg (94) being 

two of the true stars of the vintage.&nbsp; Bercher's Feuerberg (93) was the 

third from Baden in the top ten of the German vintage.&nbsp; In white, 

Schneider's Weissburgunder *** (92), Salwey's Henkenberg Grauburgunder 

(92), Bercher's Feuerberg Grauburgunder (91) and Heger's Winklerberg 

Grauburgunder (91) held their own against their rivals from the Pfalz, 

taking four of the top ten listings. In neighboring Württemberg, 

with not quite 30,000 acres Germany's fourth-largest growing area, red 

wines merit the most attention.&nbsp; Gert Aldinger again bottled the 

region's best lemberger with his 2009 Fellbacher Lämmler Grosses Gewächs

 (92).&nbsp; Among the pinot noirs, his Gips Grosses Gewächs (92) also shared

 top honors with Rainer Schnaittmann's (Rudi Wiest) Lämmler (92). Although

 the large wineries in Würzburg are the best-known estates abroad, the 

top producer in Franken today is Paul Furst (Rudi Wiest) in Burgstadt.&nbsp; 

His 2009 Centgrafenberg Hunsruck Pinot Noir Grosses Gewächs (93) was 

also one of the top ten pinots of the vintage.&nbsp; In white, three Grosses 

Gewächs from silvaner, the region's signature variety, shone with 91 

points each:&nbsp; the Stein from Juliusspital, the Kronsberg from Wirsching,

 and the Pfulben from Schmitt's Kinder. With only slightly more 

than 1,000 acres of vineyard, the Ahr is not only tiny, but also one of 

Germany's most northerly regions.&nbsp; Global warming along with better 

vineyard management has made quality on the steep, south-facing schist 

slopes more regular and there are now four or five producers of note 

there, the most famous of whom is certainly Werner Näkel from 

Meyer-Näkel (Rudi Wiest) in Dernau, but Jean Stodden in Rech, Marc 

Adeneuer in Altenahr and Wolfgang Hehle in Mayschoss also make excellent

 pinot noir.&nbsp; My two favorites this year were the 2009 Gärkammer Grosses

 Gewächs (93) from Adeneuer and the 2009 Long Gold Capsule (93) from 

Stodden, both of which ranked in my top ten. In total, 36% of 

Germany's over 250,000 acres of vineyard are now planted with red 

varieties--and with 30,000 acres of pinot noir, Germany produces more 

than Australia and New Zealand combined.&nbsp; For the American market it 

remains a curiosity, but its importance will certainly continue to grow. How

 I taste.&nbsp; I began seriously tasting the 2010s in the spring of 2011, 

first at ProWein, Germany's Vinexpo, and later at the annual fair 

organized by the VDP, the association of Germany's finest producers, at 

which they give the trade a first glimpse of the new vintage.&nbsp; Over the 

course of the summer, I visited numerous estates in each growing region 

in order to get a first-hand account of the growing conditions, the 

market forces at work and the general level of satisfaction.&nbsp; Although I

 often taste wines with the producers at that time, I only write notes 

and score those wines that I have tasted again under neutral conditions 

so as not to be influenced by the presence of the estate owners, 

winemakers or sales directors. At about the same time, I receive 

samples from all the estates, tasting first each collection in its 

entirety in order to ascertain how a given producer dealt with the 

climatic conditions of the vintage.&nbsp; I then conclude each growing region

 with a comparative tasting of the better wines.&nbsp; At that time, I line 

up the dry rieslings with the dry rieslings, the spätleses with the 

spätleses, and so on, in order to compare them and to see how they have 

evolved since my earlier tastings.&nbsp; In particular, this allows me to see

 if a promising wine from a little-known estate might not have more 

potential that an innocuous wine from a famous one. Although I 

had already tasted over the summer most of the Grosses Gewächs, which 

are so coveted in Germany itself, the first official presentation of the

 2010 vintage for the press took place in Wiesbaden in late August.&nbsp; 

This gave me another opportunity to look at the finest dry wines. Finally,

 in late September I did a comparative tasting across the regions in 

which the finest wines in each category were again analyzed and final 

scores drawn.&nbsp; It is hardly rare that a riesling that showed charmingly 

well in the spring might have lost some of its character by autumn, or 

that a slow starter turns out to have a lot more potential, but that is 

the nature of wine.&nbsp; This is why I taste them as often as possible.&nbsp; In 

fact, until late November I was still following certain leads, looking 

again at certain wines or tasting additional others to provide more 

depth to this coverage.&nbsp; Nonetheless, there are still some late or even 

not-yet-bottled 2010s that I have yet to see. Exports to the 

United States.&nbsp; While German exports to America had risen dramatically 

over a number of years, the economic crisis and weak dollar have put the

 brakes on that development.&nbsp; Two thousand ten was a better year for 

German riesling than was 2009, but few importers were euphoric about the

 short-term possibilities.&nbsp; The first half of 2011 has brought 

stability, but the short crop has stymied potential advances.&nbsp; According

 to Monika Reule, the head of the German Wine Institute, "from January 

to June 2011 volume was stable and revenue up about 5% to 52 million 

Euros."&nbsp; With that, the United States now accounts for about a third of 

all German wine exports. The finest estates appear to be holding 

their market, says Johannes Leitz, "but even the better restaurants are 

selling less expensive wine than three years ago."&nbsp; At the retail level,

 sales have been less affected, but the volume of noble late-harvest 

wines in the mix continues to decline, and these kinds of wines are what

 the 2010 vintage brought in spades. What works for riesling--and

 its star is still rising--are price points up to $15.99, explains 

Johannes Selbach, "with estate-bottled German wines still moving up to 

about $23," and these two segments are still growing.&nbsp; Above that, sales

 slow markedly.&nbsp; That said, wine as a whole appears to have weathered 

the crisis better than other consumer goods.&nbsp; "The potential uptrend for

 German riesling will be a function of disposable income," believes Mat 

Damon from Truly Fine Wine in San Diego.&nbsp; Currently, observes importer 

Terry Theise, most consumers that traded down have stayed down. "The guy

 in the $10-$20 price range is still going to Trader Joe's, Costco and 

Bev Mo." On a positive note, the off-dry style, be it halbtrocken or 

feinherb, is gaining in popularity, and even the "bone-dry" trocken 

wines are more widely accepted today, especially in restaurants, than 

ever before. <hr> Joel B. Payne, an expatriate American who 

has lived in Germany since 1983, is a regular contributor to Germany's 

leading wine magazines, Falstaff and Vinum; he is also a founding member

 of the Grand Jury Européen. His German Wine Guide has appeared annually

 for the past 19 years. Payne, who has covered Germany in the IWC since 

the 2004 vintage, served as president of the international circle of 

wine writers, FIJEV, from 2007 to 2010.

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