2001 VINTAGE "RULES"NEW YORK - December, 2002 Perfect Scores from the Wine Spectator and Parker's Wine Advocate The slogan, "If you think you know German wine, drink again" has never been more compelling. According to America's two leading wine review publications the 2001 German vintage has yielded perfection. The first perfect 100 point score came in the October issue of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. In a precursor to a much more extensive (and rave) review which subsequently appeared in the December issue, Pierre-Antoine Rovani proclaimed a 2001 Riesling Eiswein from the Nahe estate Hermann Dönnhoff to be vinous perfection. Only the lowliest of the Dönnhoff wines, a simple QbA wine was awarded just 90 points, the remaining nine wines reviewed garnering scores between 92 and 98. Leading into the more extensive review in the December issue, Rovani noted, "Nature provided Deutschland's winemakers with such spectacular fruit that lesser-known estates were capable of making outstanding wines and the nation's most renowned weinguts produced ethereal, mind-boggling gems that left me shaking my head in wonder." Rovani went on to issue 3 more nearly perfect scores to wines from the Rheingau's Robert Weil (99+), and the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer estates of Selbach-Oster (99+) and Max. Ferd. Richter (99). The Wine Spectator proclaimed Weingut Gunderloch a favorite issuing a perfect 100 points for the Rheinhessen estate's 2001 Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese Nackenheim Rothenberg in their Jan. 9, 2003 Wine Spectator Weekly. According to editor Bruce Sanderson, the score "marks the third perfect rating for Gunderloch's TBA, along with the 1992 and 1996 vintages." Notably, Sanderson confirmed that Weingut Gunderloch is the "only producer in the history of the publication to receive three perfect ratings for wines tasted as new releases." Kudos to master wine maker (and exceptionally nice guy) Fritz Hasselbach! The full review of the 2001 vintage will appear in the March issue of the Wine Spectator. |
 |
|
