Over nine days, almost 2,000 wines were intensively tasted, evaluated, with awards were given to the most highly scored in the final round. As usual, the wines were judged in a blind tasting by an expert jury of oenologists, specialist retailers, sommeliers and journalists familiar with the diversity of Riesling.
There were new discoveries among the winners, as well as well-known Riesling-focused estates. A total of 142 Rieslings were awarded 91 points or more, with eleven getting the highest score of 94 points.
Best in Each Category
Prizes were awarded in eight categories from dry to noble sweet:
- Weingut Odinstal (Pfalz, a BASF exclusive bottling)
- Weingut Bott (Rheingau)
- Weingut Raddeck (Rheinhessen)
- Weingut Schloss Vollrads (Rheingau)
- Weingut Kernlinghof (Pfalz)
- Weingut Weingart (Mittelrhein)
- Weingut Juliusspital (Franconia)
- Lauermann & Weyer and Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan (both Pfalz)
Collection of the Year
VDP winery Schloss Vollrads (Rheingau) was won the award for the best Riesling Collection of the Year. In addition to the 1st place for the 2020 Schlossberg Riesling Grosses Gewächs (94 points), Ralf Bengel's team received top ratings for the 2018 Riesling Beerenauslese (92 points), 2021 Winkel Riesling Spätlese (91 points) and 2021 Winkel Riesling Trocken (88 points). This was the best overall result received by any participating winery.
The 2021 vintage showed consistently high quality which was reflected by the results. The oldest prize winners wines were from the 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2011 vintages.
And the Winning Region is: ‘Pfalz’
The most successful German region this year is the Pfalz with 340 prize winners, followed by Rheinhessen and Mosel (185 each), Rheingau (92), Nahe (87), Württemberg (85), as well as Franconia (53) and the Mittelrhein (41). Rieslings from Baden, Saxony, Saale-Unstrut and the Hessische Bergstrasse were also among the award-winning wines.
Internationally, Rieslings from Austria (51), France (40), the Czech Republic (12) as well as from Australia, Croatia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia and the USA all did well in the competition.
An Analog Award Again
After two years of digital award ceremonies, the winners were once again invited to the Vinicombe of Meininger Verlag in Neustadt, Germany. The patron of the competition, Ms Daniela Schmitt, Minister for Economy, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate personally congratulated representatives of the wineries who had made their way to Neustadt.
The certificates were personally presented to the winemakers by Meininger's Editors-in-Chiefs Ilka Lindemann of Weinwelt, Alexandra Wrann of Weinwirtschaft and Karin Eymael, of Der Deutsche Weinbau.
And by Christoph Nicklas, Editor of Meininger's Sommelier as well as Christian Wolf, Tasting Manager Meininger Verlag.
Organiser Christoph Meininger expressed his thanks: "I am so happy to finally see the people behind these great Rieslings, to taste the wines with them and to exchange ideas face to face. I don't know any industry that lives more from this exchange and from this emotion. Thank you so much for being here."
Category I – Dry Riesling (with moderate alcohol content)
- 1st place
2020 Weitblick Riesling trocken BASF Exklusiv
Weingut Odinstal (Pfalz, exklusiv über den Weinkeller der BASF)
- 2nd place
2021 Dexheimer Riesling Kalkstein trocken
Weingut Fischborn Bergeshof, Dexheim (Rheinhessen)
- 3rd place
2021 Riesling trocken vom Buntsandstein
Weingut Borell Diehl, Hainfeld (Pfalz)
2021 Riesling Unum trocken
Weingut Blaul und Sohn, Gönnheim (Pfalz)
Category II - Dry Single Vineyard (Lagen) Riesling (with moderate alcohol content)
- 1st place
2020 Kostheimer St. Kiliansberg Riesling trocken Rheingau Grosses Gewächs
Weingut Bott, Bischofsheim (Rheingau)
- 2nd place
2020 Besigheimer Wurmberg Riesling VDP.ERSTE LAGE® trocken
Weingut Dautel, Bönnigheim (Württemberg)
- 3rd place:
2017 Ungsteiner Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett Réserve trocken
Weingut Isegrim, Bad Dürkheim (Pfalz)
Category III - Dry Riesling
- 1st place
2020 Riesling Alte Reben trocken
Weingut Raddeck, Nierstein (Rheinhessen)
- 2nd place
2021 Riesling Bienenglück trocken
Bioland Weingut Neuspergerhof Inh. Jochen Gradolph, Rohrbach (Pfalz)
- 3rd place:
2021 Kreuznacher Riesling Kalkmerkel trocken
Weingut Fischborn Bergeshof, Dexheim (Nahe)
Category IV - Dry Single Vineyard (Lagen) Riesling
- 1st place
2020 SCHLOSSBERG Riesling GG VDP.GROSSE LAGE® trocken
Weingutsverwaltung Schloss Vollrads, Oestrich-Winkel (Rheingau)
- 2nd place
2019 Stettener Pulvermächer Riesling GG VDP.GROSSE LAGE® trocken
Weingut Karl Haidle, Kernen (Württemberg)
- 3rd place
2019 Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling trocken
Oliver Zeter, Neustadt-Haardt (Pfalz)
Category V - Semi-dry/Off-dry Riesling
- 1st place
2021 Riesling feinherb
Weingut Kernlinghof Ludwig & Philip Hochdörffer, Landau - Nußdorf (Pfalz)
- 2nd place
2020 Merler Stephansberg Riesling feinherb
Weingut Albert Kallfelz, Zell-Merl (Mosel)
- 3rd place
2021 Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling No. 53 Spätlese feinherb
Weingut Udo Weber, Monzingen (Nahe)
Category VI - Residual Sweet Riesling
- 1st place
2021 Bopparder Hamm Engelstein Am Weißen Wacke Riesling Spätlese
Weingut Weingart, Spay (Mittelrhein)
- 2nd place
2021 Würzburger Stein-Harfe Riesling Spätlese VDP.GROSSE LAGE®
Bürgerspital zum Hl. Geist, Würzburg (Franken)
- 3rd place
2021 Bopparder Hamm FEUERLAY Riesling Spätlese VDP.GROSSE LAGE®
Weingut Matthias Müller, Spay (Mittelrhein)
Category VII - Noble Sweet Riesling
- 1st place
2016 Würzburger Stein Riesling VDP.ERSTE LAGE® Beerenauslese
Weingut Juliusspital, Würzburg (Franken)
- 2nd place
2020 Escherndorfer Lump Riesling VDP.ERSTE LAGE® Beerenauslese
Weingut Horst Sauer, Escherndorf (Franken)
- 3rd place
2020 Freudensteiner Brunnenquellweinberge Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese
Württembergische Weingärtner-Zentralgenossenschaft, Möglingen (Württemberg)
Category VIII - Aged Riesling
- 1st place dry
2012 Bockenheimer Goldgrube Riesling trocken
Weingut Lauermann & Weyer, Bockenheim (Pfalz)
- 1st place sweet
2013 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling VDP.GROSSE LAGE® Beerenauslese
Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan, Deidesheim (Pfalz)
- 2nd place
2011 Rauenthaler Baiken Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese
Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach, Eltville (Rheingau)
Special Awards at a Glance
- Best Dry Riesling in Food Retail
2021 Sankt M Riesling trocken
Weingärtner Cleebronn-Güglingen, Germany
- Best Dry Steep Slope Riesling
2020 Bönnigheimer Steingrüben Riesling trocken VDP.GROSSE LAGE®
Weingut Dautel, Bönnigheim, Germany
- Best Dry Riesling Europe
2019 Langenlois Ried Steinmassl 1ÖTW Riesling trocken Kamptal DAC
Weingut Loimer, Langenlois, Austria
- Best Dry Riesling from the New World
2021 Wakefield St Andrews Riesling Vintage Release
Taylors Wines, Clare Valley, Australia
- Collection of the Year
Weingut Schloss Vollrads, Germany
The winners of the eight categories as well as a top 100 will be presented by Meininger's Weinwelt in its July issue (in German). All award-winning Rieslings as well as further information on Best of Riesling can be found HERE.
