Germany – a foretaste for the 2003s

As a foretaste before I publish tasting notes on nearly 300 German wines from the exceptionally ripe 2003 vintage later this week I thought I’d put up the following notes on wines from other vintages tasted recently alongside this voluptuous vintage in the hope that they might help to set it in context.

Note particularly how some 2002s are retreating into their shell now – a common phenomenon with German wines which tend to show well from cask, then retreat immediately after they are bottled for a few weeks, then show well for their first year or two...