100 points for Schloss Johannisberg Riesling

James Suckling has published his Top Wines of 2020, having rated almost 18,000 wines since last year.

His No.2 wine of the year is the Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Rheingau Grünlack Spätlese 2019 – he describes 2019 as a benchmark for modern German wines and that this is one of the best ever made… “Many consider Schloss Johannisberg the birthplace for German riesling as well as sweet wines. It’s been making them since the mid-1770s.”

“The 100-point medium-sweet, dense and layered Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Rheingau Grünlack Spätlese 2019 is a monument to the genre and is a reminder of the historical greatness of sweet wines of Germany… Don’t miss buying some.”

Stuart Pigott wrote “The 2019 vintage is the best vintage I have ever tasted for German riesling in my four-decade career. Like James, my career as a wine critic began in the early 1980s. The first German vintage I tasted as young wines was 1983 and I can’t remember a vintage like that – until now. The 2019 wines, from dry to classic style with natural grape sweetness are simply astonishing quality, which means 2019 is one of the greatest vintages of modern times and will be remembered for decades, possibility generations.”