Browse using the new Vinous website now. Launch →
Rheinhessen, Pfalz & Mittelrhein: A Game of Patience
featured, Germany
, Sep 2025
Two thousand twenty-four was a challenging year for the winemakers in Rheinhessen, Pfalz and Mittelrhein. Frost, rain, and a hot, dry summer required immense patience. In the end, lovers of classic, cool, svelte but highly expressive Rieslings are in for a treat in 2024.
Rheingau and Nahe 2024: Rain, Frost and Unexpected Brilliance
featured, Germany
, Sep 2025
While the Rheingau escaped the terrible frost events that devastated many Nahe vineyards in April 2024, late summer rains spelled lower sugar levels. Slow ripening and sufficient moisture made for aromatic, 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.
2024 Wachau and Lower Austria: Calamities and Coups de Coeur
Austria, featured
, Jun 2025
Frost, hail, heat and high water—nature threw everything at winegrowers in Lower Austria in 2024. A warm March led to some of the earliest budbursts ever, making vines vulnerable to late spring frosts in April. Heat and drought posed a challenge in summer, while torrential rains in mid-September caused widespread flooding. Some estates had dramatically lower yields, some were lucky to escape relatively unscathed, but all were worried about what the rain would do to their fruit. Quality is thus more mixed in 2024, yet there are highlights and coups de coeur nonetheless.
Popping Corks: The Second Vinous Sekt Report
Austria, featured, Germany
, May 2025
The renaissance of German and Austrian Sekt continues apace. After last year’s paean to the revival of bottle-fermented Sekt in both countries, this is the second report on all things German-speaking and bottle-fermented. While the holy trinity of sparkling varieties, namely Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, shines in both countries, we will also take a closer look at Rieslingsekt.
English Still Wine: Much Promise, Much Afoot
featured, Rest of the World
, Apr 2025
Though eclipsed by the success of English sparkling wine, English still wine has come a long way from the meagre image of yesteryear. What has happened in the past decade is remarkable: Climate change, increased growing expertise and the exploration of new regions have made all the difference. With a track record of excelling in cool and marginal climes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are undoubtedly the stars. These two chameleons shine on this Sceptred Isle. Much is afoot.
Alsace 2023: Astonishing Whites and Splendid Reds from a Complex Year
France: Alsace, featured
, Apr 2025
Dry, dry, dry. This is how Alsace growers remember the 2023 vintage. Sandy, gravelly sites on the plain suffered and stony slopes struggled, but sites with more water-retentive soils fared much better. In 2023, the Rieslings have concentration, moderate alcohol, ripe acidity and great aging potential. The stylistic spectrum of Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer is as broad and diverse as ever, while Pinot Noir is getting finer and finer.
2023 Burgenland and Austria’s East: Gorgeous Reds, Aromatic Whites and Killer Sweets
Austria, featured
, Mar 2025
The 2023 growing season kept winemakers in Austria’s east on their toes. Rain that had been so sorely missed in 2022 came in abundance, as did heat. However, a golden autumn ensured long ripening and yielded reds and whites with bright acidity and aromatic nuance. Producers who specialize in nobly sweet wines were able to pick concentrated fruit with super-clean botrytis. What’s more, Austria’s east was spared from frost and hail, as well as from the many flood events that did so much damage throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
English Sparkling Wine: Effervescence and Reserve
featured
, Feb 2025
This not-quite inaugural report on English Sparkling Wine (Neal Martin reported from the depths of lockdown in July 2020) shines a light on England’s much-hyped fizz and puts it all into context. I tasted just over 100 current releases, hailing from as far west as Cornwall, all the way east via Essex to the Suffolk Coast, along England’s southern counties of Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire and Surrey, to its wine heartlands in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire—as well as Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. There are some world-class wines among them and some stunning late releases. Blanc de Blancs is the star among a wonderful diversity of styles, geographic origins and producers.
2023 Mosel-Saar-Ruwer: A Riesling Race Against Rain
featured, Germany: Saar, germany: Mosel, Germany: Ruwer
, Dec 2024
The slopes that drop steeply to the meandering Mosel in the Rhenish Slate Massif received their fair share of sunshine and rain in 2023. While the first half of the growing season made many fear a repeat of the drought conditions of 2022, summer rain arrived with all its concomitant factors. Initially welcomed with relief, ripening soon accelerated, threatening to split berries and attracting the wrong kind of rot. Once again, flexibility and agility were of the essence, and selection was the name of the game. Where 2022 was fine-boned, 2023 is juicy and exuberant. Lovers of Spätlese will be especially happy with the 2023 Rieslings.
Rheinhessen & Rheingau: Riesling Triumphs After Rain
featured, Germany
, Oct 2024
Rheingau and Rheinhessen produced world-class Rieslings in 2023. The wines are bursting with flavor and delineated by freshness but moderate in alcohol. An initially dry year was drenched in late summer rains, which the late-ripening Riesling weathered with aplomb. Steep, stony slopes of historic renown proved their exalted status all over again. If there is one operative attribute for this Riesling vintage, it is juiciness. In the Rheingau, off-dry and nobly sweet wines with electric acidity are an added bonus. The 2022 Pinot Noirs are some of the best ever.