German sparkling wines of the year 2021 awarded // Griesel Sekt wins award for the best "sparkling wine collection" for the first time
For the seventh time, Meiningers Deutscher Sektpreis (German Sparkling Wine Award) honours the best German sparkling wines from traditional bottle fermentation. More and more German wine producers are dedicating themselves to the supreme discipline of sparkling wine production, and the qualities tasted greatly impressed the expert jury.
German sparkling wine from traditional bottle fermentation is enjoying increasing popularity and recognition. In the past, sparkling wines from the well-known regions of France, Italy or Spain were often chosen, but nowadays the right sparkling wine for almost every occasion can be found on the lists of domestic sparkling wine producers.
On three tasting days, the expert jury tasted over 500 sparkling wines sent in by 230 sparkling wine producers. In the morning, all sparkling wines were first tasted individually and without knowledge of the producer and evaluated on the basis of the international 100-point scheme. In the afternoon, the six sparkling wines with the best scores in each category were compared directly to select the winners.
In the category of Riesling sparkling wines, this year's winner is Sekthaus Krack from Deidesheim in the Palatinate with its single vineyard sparking wine 2015 Langenmorgen Riesling extra brut.
In the category of Burgundy sparkling wines that have been on the yeast for less than 36 months, Griesel Sekt from Bensheim, Hessische Bergstrasse, wins with its 2018 Blanc de Noirs brut Tradition.
The category of Prestige Burgundy sparkling wines (at least 36 months of yeast ageing) is dominated this year by the most successful sparkling wine producer of the past years: all three places on the podium this year go to the Raumland Sekthaus. First place to the 2012 XII Triumvirat Grande Cuvée brut.
One single sparkling wine producer is also represented twice in the rosé sparkling wines: both first and second place go to Griesel Sekt from Bensheim. The 2017 Rosé extra brut Prestige wins the category.
The victory in the Sortenvielfalt (various grape varieties) category goes to a grape variety more at home in Austria: the 2019 Grüner Veltliner brut from Weingut Hammel in Kirchheim (Pfalz) wins first place.
In the category of dry sparkling wines, which have more residual sugar than the sparkling wines of the brut flavour, two rosé sparkling wines are in the lead this year. First place goes to the 2018 Rosé extra dry from Leitzgen Weine in Bremm on the Moselle.
Griesel Sekt, which has shown a more than impressive development in the past years since its foundation in 2013, wins the award "Sparkling Wine Collection of the Year" for the first time, closely followed by Sekthaus Raumland. Both sparkling wine producers received an average of over 92 points for their sparkling wines.
German sparkling wine from traditional bottle fermentation is one of the flagships of German winegrowers and sparkling wine producers today. What we were able to taste this year clearly shows that the handle can happily go to Germany in search of an excellent sparkling wine. Domestic producers manage to offer a stylistic variety par excellence, regardless of whether it is the Prestige Burgundy sparkling wine, the Rosé sparkling wine or the primary fruity Riesling sparkling wine.
All the award-winning sparkling wines as well as further information on the seventh Meiningers Deutscher Sektpreis 2021 can be found on the following pages. The first-place winners as well as the top 100 of the best German sparkling wines from traditional bottle fermentation will be presented by Meiningers Weinwelt in the next issue, which will be published in mid-September.
The winners of Meiningers Deutscher Sektpreis are once again presented online by Director Degustation Christian Wolf and Sascha Speicher, editor-in-chief of meiningers sommelier magazine (German language):