Rheingau and Nahe 2024: Rain, Frost and Unexpected Brilliance

BY ANNE KREBIEHL, MW | SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

While the Rheingau escaped the terrible frost events that devastated many Nahe vineyards in April 2024, late summer rains spelled lower sugar levels and required scrupulous sorting. However, slow ripening and sufficient moisture made for aromatically expressive, if slender, wines. In the Nahe, yields were severely curtailed by spring frosts, but the top estates made some of their most crystalline wines ever. Kabinette and Spätlesen shine with uncommon verve in 2024. A mere handful of Auslesen were made, as well as very few BA or TBA. If juiciness was the operative term in 2023, svelteness is the word for 2024, an immensely challenging year for winemakers due to frost, moisture, heat and rain.

Impressions and Reality

Quite a number of winemakers remembered 2024 as “cooler,” when it was in fact another record year in terms of temperatures. Indeed, it was a cooler summer than 2022 and 2023, but not actually cool. The federal state of Hessen, home to the Rheingau, had its hottest spring in 140 years, even if the moisture and rain made it feel otherwise. Geisenheim University’s data for Riesling in Eltville, representing the Rheingau region, recorded budburst before mid-April, 11 days earlier than average. Indeed, 2024 had merely 64 summer days—defined as days where air temperatures reach at least 25°C—compared to 85 in 2023. However, the annual mean temperature was still 12.2°C in 2024 versus 12.4°C in 2023, with a far warmer spring in 2024 and rainfall dramatically higher than normal in May, June and September. The federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, where the Nahe is located, experienced few temperature spikes but recorded the hottest August since 1881, with an extremely wet May. Winemakers can be forgiven for remembering 2024 as less hot than 2023.

A view across the vineyards of Winkel toward those of Oestrich and Hallgarten illustrates how much the degree of slope varies among top-notch Rheingau vineyards.

Rheingau

Despite the early budburst and temperatures dropping to just below 0°C during the nights of April 22 and 23, the Rheingau escaped frost in 2024. It was the disease pressure of Peronospora (downy mildew) in May and June, caused by rain, that cost producers yields, especially those on richer soils of loess and loam. For instance, the steep, stony slopes around Rüdesheim and Kiedrich managed the water far better than the gentler slopes in Eltville and Hattenheim. Yield reductions were particularly severe for Pinot varieties. Fred Prinz in Hallgarten noted how difficult it was to find short windows of good weather in May and June (without waterlogged soils) to spray the grapes. He recalled a summer that was “not too hot, not too moist—ideal, actually.” According to Philipp Corvers, the stony slopes of the Rüdesheimer Berg, which are usually parched by July, remained lush all summer. But the rain and cooler nights had another effect on Riesling. While grapes looked healthy in August and early September, they often had not reached high sugar levels. With a significant rain event forecast for October 7 and 8, and late-September picking punctuated by rain, many growers hurried to get their fruit in before rot took the rest. Others waited out the rain and gained a little more ripeness, but paid for it in yield, having to sort extensively. On the positive side, acids did not decline, hence the unusual brilliance and svelteness of the 2024 Rieslings.

Stefan Doktor presented an impeccable lineup of Rieslings at Schloss Johannisberg.

Several winemakers made mention of how perfect the first grapes they picked were for Kabinett, possessing electric acidity, beautiful aromatic development and absolutely healthy fruit. The best wines are thrilling. Spätlesen in 2024 were usually made without botrytis and reflect the welcome trend of restrained sweetness with aromatic allure. October rain and the absence of a golden autumn dashed most hopes of good botrytis. Robert Weil picked a thrilling TBA for the 36th year in succession, and so did the Spreitzers, but out of sheer determination rather than opportunity. In the slightly lower-lying Johannisberg, Stefan Doktor remarked that 2024 was the first time in the past 40 years that no Auslese was made at Schloss Johannisberg. The dry Rheingau Rieslings are beautifully measured and lithe, with moderate alcohols, exquisitely buffered acidities and good dry extracts, all due to the rain. Some entry-level wines were minimally chaptalized, but this is now done sensibly. This is what makes German wine so special: the ability to produce so much flavor at 12-12.5% alcohol.

Nahe

Two frosty nights in April 22 and 23 were the defining events in the Nahe valley in 2024. Temperatures dropped in some places to -5°C, so cold that no frost candle could make any difference. Usually, frost behaves like water as heavy, cold air flows down and affects the lowest-lying frost pockets most. But 2024 was different: the frost came paired with fog, and even steep slopes, usually drained of cold air, were affected. The most dramatic example of this was the Schlossböckelheimer Kupfergrube, a very exposed slope from which neither Gut Hermannsberg, Rebecca Crusius nor Tim Fröhlich made any GG Riesling in 2024. In fact, Gut Hermannsberg decided to make no GGs at all in 2024, blending all the fruit from their stony sites across the Nahe into the Riesling 7 Terroirs. I wonder whether this decision was purely down to the frost damage or whether the current economic climate also played a role. It is probably easier to sell larger quantities of a great-value Riesling that punches well above its weight than to sell far more expensive GGs.

Jakob Schneider is much happier in 2025 than he was in 2024, but his 2024s show none of the pain or effort they required in the vineyard—on the contrary, they are exquisite.

In any case, frost affected a lot of the Nahe. Jakob Schneider in Niederhausen said that his father remembered only the 1957 frost to have been worse. Bad Kreuznach escaped the frost, but Martin and Johannes Tesch lost a lot of fruit in the Guldenbachtal. Monzingen and Bockenau also emerged mostly unscathed.

In 2024, Nahe winemakers faced difficulties with two generations of shoots on the frosted vineyards. Post-frost second shoots produced more foliage than fruit, and that effect was supercharged by much rain. Abundance of water was very evident during my trip to the region in late June 2024. I had never seen the Nahe river with so much water, and the deluges continued. Karsten Peter of Gut Hermannsberg recalled that some of the springs dotted throughout the Kupfergrube slope finally carried water again, something that had not happened in years. Maartin Korrell said that nothing was homogeneous, explaining, “You had two different generations of grapes on the same vine and it was not always the same that was ripest, sometimes the first, sometimes the second.” Cornelius Dönnhoff said, “Canopy management was a challenge, as everything was so bushy. But the psychological challenge was worse. You knew there was going to be almost nothing to harvest, and yet you had to do the work. Financially, this is also tough, but it has to be part of the calculation.” Both Schneider and Dönnhoff reported that some fellow villagers simply discontinued work in their frosted sites because that calculation simply did not add up. That said, the 2024 Nahe Rieslings seem like sublimations of the region, heightened expressions of crystalline fruit and aroma combined with eternal stoniness. Kabinette and Spätlesen dance on tiptoe, excite and beguile in equal measure. There was not much beyond that in terms of Prädikate, despite Emrich-Schönleber and Schäfer-Fröhlich managing to produce an Auslese.

Tasting under the parasol with Désirée Eser Freifrau zu Knyphausen and her husband Dodo zu Knyphausen at the August Eser estate in Oestrich-Winkel.

The Riesling Verdict

The 2024 Rieslings are a wonderful counterpoint to the 2023s. Where 2023 was peach, 2024 is lemon. Where 2023 was juiciness and fill, 2024 is aroma and svelteness. Where 2023 was luminous, 2024 is electric. Riesling lovers can take their pick of which vintage they prefer. The best dry Rieslings of 2024 undoubtedly have a hair-raising quality and carry so much thrill. They will age effortlessly.

The wines combine slow ripening—due to rain as opposed to cold—with sufficient moisture that buffered acids and increased dry extract by allowing the vines to transport and retain minerals like potassium and nitrogen. Naturally, that nitrogen helped to make the ferments go through without a hitch. In 2024, aromatic development kept pace or even overtook sugar development, while acids stayed bright. This resulted in an ultra-racy, superbly thrilling style of Riesling with moderate alcohol and nuanced brilliance. As Philipp Corvers put it, in 2024, “Riesling had more room for vibration.”

A Word on Pinot Noir

The 2023 growing season was tough on Pinot Noir because of the September rains. The year was especially tricky for August Kesseler, the doyen of Pinot Noir in the Rheingau with ancient vines on the Assmannshäuser Höllenberg. Kesseler did not make any Pinot Noir GGs in 2023. However, some producers presented their exquisite 2022s, which are a milestone, especially in that amazing site of mica schist of the Assmannshäuser Höllenberg. Kesseler scored highly there last year. Krone only showed the 2022s this year—what wonderful wines! Künstler’s 2021 Pinot Noir from the same site is no less expressive. Across the river in the Nahe, Pinot Noir is not permitted for GGs. In spite of that, Caroline Diel continues to craft exquisite Pinot Noirs. Diel is truly one of Germany’s most gifted and foremost Pinot Noir winemakers. Amidst much fanfare for German Pinot Noir, there are now quite a handful of wines that warrant the high praise.

I tasted the wines for this report during estate visits in late June and early July 2025.

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