The best Rieslings of the year / 2,300 Rieslings in the competition
Some 2,300 Rieslings underwent blind tasting at the 13th edition of the world’s largest Riesling competition. The 126 expert judges carefully scrutinised the Rieslings over several rounds of tasting. Today, the award ceremony was held at MEININGER VERLAG. In eight categories, the top 30 wineries, both from Germany and abroad, were honoured for their finest Rieslings.
Wineries from a total of eleven countries entered their Rieslings into the competition for the coveted Best of Riesling awards. The range of styles and level of quality were impressive, ranging from dry, everyday Rieslings to sweet rarities. The 2,300 Rieslings were split into eight categories before entering the first round of tasting, which lasted eight days. The top 700 Rieslings qualified for the two-day final, where they were once again tasted and evaluated by the international judging panel.
With 2,300 Rieslings entered, the competition – whose patron is Dr Volker Wissing, the viticulture minister of Rhineland-Palatinate – has once again impressively demonstrated its status as the world’s largest and most important Riesling competition.
Today, the awards were presented to the wineries at a ceremony in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. The patron, Dr Volker Wissing (Deputy Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate and Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture), congratulated the winners of the individual categories on the outstanding quality of their wines.
‘This year, we were once again very impressed by the quality of the Rieslings submitted. The combination of terroir, vintage character and each grower’s unique stamp provided our judges with many highlights. Choosing the winners was far from easy, with the decision made by an infinitesimal margin in many categories,’ explains Christian Wolf, Director Degustation, summing up. Unusually this year, some wines were awarded the same number of points, meaning that two wines tied for first place or third place, for example, in some categories.
Alongside the winners of the various categories, the competition also includes special awards for ‘Best Steep Slope Riesling’, ‘Best Riesling in Food Retailers’, ‘Best European Riesling’ and ‘Best New World Riesling’. Furthermore, an honorary award – the ‘ProRiesling Erzeugerpreis’ from ProRiesling e.V. – is also given for the best Riesling range.
Most of the Rieslings entered in this year’s competition originate from German growing regions, led by Pfalz, Rheinhessen, Mosel, Rheingau, Nahe, Württemberg and Franken. The competition also featured international Rieslings, including not only wines from France, Austria and Luxembourg, but also from other continents, such as wines from Australia, Chile and the United States.
The winners and the top 130 from this year’s competition will be showcased in the July issue of Meiningers Weinwelt. All award-winning Rieslings can now be found on MEININGER ONLINE at www.meininger.de/en.
About Best of Riesling
The international Best of Riesling competition was launched in 2005 by the agriculture ministry of Rhineland-Palatinate and was held every two years until 2011.
MEININGER VERLAG, which specialises in wine publications and tastings, now holds what has become the world’s largest Riesling competition every year. Best of Riesling is held under the patronage of the agriculture ministry of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The winners in all eight categories, plus the special awards can be found in the enclosed press release.
For more information, please visit: www.best-of-riesling.com, www.meininger.de/en
Press contact:
Christian Wolf
MEININGER VERLAG GmbH
Maximilianstrasse 7–17
67433 Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
Tel.: +49 (0)6321 890 813
Mobile: +49 (0)173 866 2467
Fax: +49 (0)6321 890 8954
Email: [email protected]
www.meininger.de/en, www.best-of-riesling.com
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