Weinfreaks.de uses cookies. Cookies are text files that we temporarily store on your computer. Our cookies are technically necessary to provide you with the functions and content of our website. In principle, we do not share them with third parties. We only reserve the right to evaluate your cookies for the purpose of danger prevention. According to the law applicable in the European Union, we do not require your explicit consent for this. For reasons of transparency, we would nevertheless like to inform you about the use of cookies. For further information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Login

Register

Forgot your password?

Shopping cart

Your shopping cart is empty.

To take out a subscription or shop at weinfreaks.de, you must be registered and logged in.

Search on website

Use operators

Search for wines and wineries

Winzergenossenschaft Mayschoß-AltenahrImage: Deutsches Weininstitut
Winzergenossenschaft Mayschoß-Altenahr. In the 19th century, life in the Ahr valley was characterised by bitter poverty and famine. Many inhabitants emigrated to the American continent. Following the suggestion of the itinerant teacher Herrberg, 18 Mayschoßers founded the world's first winegrowers' cooperative in 1868. In the following year, the entry was made in the Koblenz commercial and cooperative register as Winzer Verein zu Mayschoß – Eingetragene Genossenschaft. In 1881, the winegrowers' association already had 141 members. Through the merger with the Winzergenossenschaft Altenahr (1982) and the takeover of the Winzergenossenschaft Walporzheim (2009, since then Weinmanufaktur Walporzheim), a strong community was formed that today handles grapes from 460 winegrowers and cultivates 150 hectares of vines. The historic wooden barrel cellar and the wine museum fell victim to a flood of the century in 2021.

Our latest ratings

WinereddryBlauer Frühburgunder

2017 Walporzheim Pfaffenberg Frühburgunder “Hommage” Qualitätswein trocken

Großes Gewächs

Brogsitter, Grafschaft

Germany

Ahr • Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (g. U.)

Amtliche Prüfungsnummer 1791033 9 19 • 13.5 % vol alcohol

15.5🯅▲

suberic acid

Tasted on 14 December 2025 by Werner Elflein

Dark, slightly transparent garnet red. Distinct roasted aromas and aromas of fully ripe blueberries on the nose. Even here, a perfect harmony does not quite seem to be achieved. The use of wood seems a little dominant. On the palate, the Frühburgunder is compact, powerful and concentrated. Again, the influence of wood is clearly noticeable. The wine needs a good two to three hours of aeration before the tannins glide over the tongue, chocolatey and soft. Unfortunately, elegance and depth fall by the wayside in favour of opulence. Very good length.

14.5🯅▲

suberic acid

Tasted on 14 December 2025 by Julia Elflein

WineredsweetGrenache Noir

2005 Maury Vin Doux Naturel

Domaine Fontanel, Tautavel

France

Languedoc-Roussillon ↳ Maury • Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC)

Lot number 308 • 16 % vol alcohol

15.5🯅

Tasted on 10 December 2025 by Werner Elflein

Still from the era of Pierre and Marie-Claude Fontanel, who handed over the winery to Elodie and Matthieu Collet in 2017. Initially transparent brick red, becoming opaque black-red on contact with air. Distinct oxidative notes of brown bread, consistent with the style of wine. Aromas of light red berries, especially currants. High in alcohol on the palate, with only limited sweetness. Powerful. Lives from its strength. Very long and persistent.

15.5🯅

Tasted on 10 December 2025 by Julia Elflein

WinewhitedryWeißer Riesling

2015 Erden Treppchen Riesling Spätlese trocken

Rebenhof, Ürzig

Germany

Mosel • Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (g. U.)

Amtliche Prüfungsnummer 2602100 13 16 • 12 % vol alcohol

17🯅

Tasted on 9 December 2025 by Werner Elflein

I have enjoyed this wine on several occasions over the past ten years. The first time was as a barrel sample at the winery. Even at our first encounter, it tasted extremely promising. Shortly after bottling, however, it fell into a slump, as expected, so I decided not to touch it for a few years. Since then, a long time has passed – at least for the lifespan of a dry Riesling. Today, it shows itself to be very well matured, with a full golden yellow colour with an amber touch and the typical aroma profile of the Erden Treppchen. Peach and apricot in abundance play around the nostrils. Both fruits are even more prominent on the palate, especially in combination with the juiciness that is characteristic of Johannes Schmitz' Rieslings. The acidity acts as a ripe, structure-forming element amid a richness that is not defined by alcohol, but rather subordinated to elegance and finesse. The mineral fingerprint of the site is omnipresent, with a delicate, age-appropriate, slightly tart phenolic character that pleasantly and distinctively references the seniority of the dry Spätlese. A hint of sweetness lingers. The wine leaves the tongue in a finish that lasts for minutes, with a seemingly endless echo. A magnificent achievement! But let us return to the bouquet. With a little air, it becomes even more complex, now offering notes of a roasted coffee bean, which make a little room for itselve at the expense of peach and apricot. After a good hour, the taste coordinates also change slightly on the palate. Perhaps the Erden Treppchen seems more serious, but in any case it is clearly more complex, with a more deeply interwoven multi-layeredness.

WinewhitedryWeißer Riesling

2024 Forst Schnepfenflug an der Weinstraße Riesling Qualitätswein trocken

Lucashof, Forst an der Weinstraße

Germany

Rheingau • Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (g. U.)

Amtliche Prüfungsnummer 5112056 5 25 • 12 % vol alcohol

14🯅

Tasted on 8 December 2025 by Werner Elflein

First things first: we are not talking about a single vineyard wine here – the Forst Schnepfenflug on the Wine Route is legally classified as a so-called Großlage (large vineyard) – but rather a dry estate Riesling from a litre bottle. A litre bottle? We are actually rubbing our eyes here, because Klaus Lucas' wine is actually too good for a typical litre quality. You cannot and should not expect terroir and the expression of a single vineyard here – and yet this bottling has everything it takes to be an everyday's favourite. Light yellow in the glass, with delicate floral notes on the nose, peach typical of the grape variety, but otherwise with the flavour attributes of a Mittelhaardt Riesling. Invigorating acidity, not overly dry, lively and with very good length, which is naturally not to be expected from a litre wine.

14.5🯅

Tasted on 8 December 2025 by Julia Elflein

WinewhitesweetWeißer Riesling

2013 Erden Treppchen Riesling Alte Reben Auslese

Meulenhof, Erden

Germany

Mosel • Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (g. U.)

Amtliche Prüfungsnummer 2582038 12 14 • 8.5 % vol alcohol

18🯅

Tasted on 1 December 2025 by Werner Elflein

Straw yellow. Delicate petrol scent of ripe peach. Typical Erden Treppchen aromatics: finely spiced, balanced and harmonious on the palate with good drinkability and a long finish with a gentle aftertaste. Juicy, concentrated Riesling Auslese with full-bodied sweetness and a piquant acidity structure. Perfect botrytis selection. Slightly more robust than its 2012 predecessor.

Symbols
🯅The rating of the wine is based on a single taster. The taster is named in the context of the rating. The tasting was either open or blind. In case of a blind tasting, it is explicitly labelled as such.
🯅🯅The rating of the wine is based on two tasters. The tasters are named in the context of the rating. The tasting was carried out according to the four-eyes principle, in which both tasters agree on a joint rating.
🯅🯅🯅The rating is based on a tasting by our jury and indicates the Mean value calculated by us from the individual ratings of the tasters. Our mean value is based on the median.
⚖The wine was evaluated in a blind tasting. We have strict rules for blind tastings. The tasters do not receive any information that would allow them to identify the wines. The tasters are only given access to further information that goes beyond the subject matter if it is absolutely necessary for understanding the wines.
🕓We only had limited time to taste the wine  - typically during an open tasting event, such as a wine fair. It was therefore not possible to observe the development of the wine in the glass over a longer period of time. The informative value of our rating may therefore be limited under certain circumstances.
⛬The wine was tasted as a barrel sample or before an official test number (Amtliche Prüfungsnummer or Staatliche Prüfnummer) was issued. We only accept samples of unfilled wines in exceptional cases, and then only if we can assume sufficient stability in the bottle for a period of at least three months.
▲During our tasting, the wine showed conspicuous sensory characteristics. This does not necessarily have to be a wine fault. We categorise the quality and quantity of the abnormality and include it in the rating. Wine faults such as cork taint or an atypical ageing generally lead to a complete rejection.
Tastings that refer to the same bottle of a wine are visually summarised by a dotted line.

Our latest posts

Obituary

Remembering Hans-Günter Schwarz

On the death of the legendary winemaker
Image: Wikipedia
Germany's wine world is in mourning. Hans-Günter Schwarz passed away on 21 November 2025 at the age of 84. For decades, Schwarz was arguably the most prominent figure in the German wine scene. He established the international reputation of the Müller-Catoir winery and trained many young winemakers to become top producers. His achievements remain unrivalled to this day.
Comment

Terroir and misunderstanding

Why the grape variety matters
Image: weinfreaks.de
“A spectre is haunting the world of wine. Its name is terroir.” [translated] With these words, Reinhard Löwenstein once opened his famous essay “Vom Öchsle zum Terroir” (From Oechsle to Terroir), published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in October 2003. The article was preceded by years of discussion that had shaped the German wine scene since at least the late 1990s. Löwenstein's essay was of enormous importance to the discourse at the time. In many respects, it is still highly topical. Nevertheless, the headline itself contains a serious misunderstanding.
Tasting

Bordeaux: 2022 a vintage of the century?

Great wines despite great drought
Image: weinfreaks.de
Apostrophising a vintage as the vintage of the century even before a centenary has passed may seem premature. However, with regard to the 2022s from the Bordeaux region, the assessment that exceptional wines were produced in that year is undoubtedly anything but bold. Of course, not all châteaux were able to triumph. Moreover, the 2022 was anything but a sure-fire success. The course of the vintage presented the winemakers with major challenges. However, in many cases, the result in the bottle can be downright inspiring. We tasted a cross-section of the vintage on the occasion of the presentation of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux at this year's ProWein.
Comment

ProWein in decline

Large drop in exhibitors and visitors at the international wine fair in Düsseldorf
Image: Messe Düsseldorf
In its press release, Messe Düsseldorf celebrates ProWein 2025 (16–18 March) as a success. However, the facts speak a different language. Only 4200 exhibitors, 20 per cent fewer than last year, were spread across the eleven exhibition halls. The number of visitors also fell, by a good ten per cent to 42000 compared to 2024. While the trade fair continues to emphasise the outstanding importance of ProWein for the international wine industry, the exodus of German wine producers in particular has reached a new dimension. Only around 900 exhibitors came from Germany in 2025.
Facts

Against viticulture and for the death of the Apollo butterfly

Absurd lawsuit against Rhineland-Palatinate
Image: Pixabay
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) is a non-profit organisation under German association law, but above all it is a group of lobbyists who receive state support for their activities. According to the online platform auto.de, this amounted to almost five million Euros in 2018. The DUH received further 2.5 million Euros from the lucrative business of issuing warning letters. DUH is now suing the state of Rhineland-Palatinate together with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rheinisch-Westfälischer Lepidopterologen (AGL). Since 2011, the state's Ministry of Viticulture has repeatedly granted winegrowers in the Lower Moselle region exemptions for helicopter spraying, which is prohibited by law in the state.
Satire

From Abtsberg to Äbtissinsberg?

Gender equality in vineyard names
Image: weinfreaks.de
There are over 2600 individual vineyards in Germany, and many of them can look back on a history of several hundred years. Until recently, the proper names of the vineyards were never scrutinised. At the end of last year, however, a newly formed working group met for the first time at the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, which is responsible for viticulture, to examine the catalogue of German vineyard sites from the point of view of gender equality. The working group is chaired by linguist Angelika Balgthöter-Hasenfratz from the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Facts

Underground power lines instead of vineyards

Hochheim am Main defends itself
Image: Pixabay
Germany is facing an energy transition. Fossil fuels, whose share of electricity generation continues to decline but still currently accounts for around 35 per cent, are not available indefinitely. In 100 years at the latest, the remaining raw materials would be exhausted if the production volume remained the same. Because politicians have been asleep for decades, things need to move quickly now. Forward-looking and far-sighted planning has fallen by the wayside. Construction measures are being driven forward with a crowbar that are likely to destroy the economic performance of an entire region and, not least, a wine culture that is thousands of years old.
Tasting

“A new chapter”

Christoph Eifel continues the family tradition
Image: Christoph Eifel
The history of the Trittenheim family business can be traced back to 1635. The next generation took over in 2021. The Ernst Eifel winery became the Christoph Eifel winery. The question of what exactly has changed as a result of the generational change is not easy to answer. It would undoubtedly be a miracle if Christoph Eifel, who learnt the winemaking trade from Nik Weis in Leiwen and Thomas Haag in Lieser before studying viticulture in Geisenheim, did not introduce his own ideas and carefully develop the style of the wines. But this does not necessarily mean a break.

A selection of our previous posts

Tasting

Valley of many cellars

Valpolicella with potential
Image: weinfreaks.de
The Valpolicella area lies east of Lake Garda and north of Verona in the Italian region of Veneto. Only red wines are produced, which are often rather light-bodied and are drunk young. However, the top wines have much more potential and can mature gracefully. A selection of wines presented by the Consorzio tutela dei vini della Valpolicella in the run-up to this year's ProWein international wine fair during a lunch at the Rossini restaurant in Düsseldorf emphasised the fact that they also make excellent accompaniments to food.
Tasting

Foam from the shore of Lake Garda

Four remarkable sparkling wines from Northern Italy
Image: Pixabay
Lake Garda is the largest inland lake in Italy. While it is surrounded to the north, west and east by the foothills of the Alps, which reach up to 2000 metres, the southern shore already lies in the lowlands of the Po. Three wine-growing regions border the lake, and sparkling wine production has a long tradition in all of them. We present four sparkling wines for everyday domestic use. Three rosés and one single-varietal Chardonnay. From extra dry to extra brut.
Tasting

In Loreley's land

Sleeping Beauty Middle Rhine
Image: Deutsches Weininstitut
The Rhine covers 130 river kilometres between Bingen and Bonn. Along this stretch, in the Middle Rhine and its side valleys, there are currently only around 470 hectares of vineyards still in production. Because the steep slopes were difficult to cultivate and land consolidation was hardly possible, a good two-thirds of the original vineyard area disappeared by the end of the 1970s. For some years now, however, the situation seems to have stabilised. At the same time, there is hope that a young generation of winegrowers will breathe new life into the Middle Rhine again. Here and there, the recultivation of old, abandoned terraced sites on the steep slopes has already begun and is counteracting the loss of further acreage.
Tasting

Finally ortsweine!

Paradigm shift at Dr. Heger
Image: Deutsches Weininstitut
Unlike some others in the industry, Joachim Heger from Ihringen has always strictly and consistently separated his wine lines. While the Dr. Heger winery almost exclusively offers wines from the single vineyards of the Kaiserstuhl, which are characterised by volcanic rock, the Weinhaus Joachim Heger primarily processes the grapes grown on loess soil from a producer association. Recently, however, the winery put four bottlings on sale for the first time as Ihringer ortsweine without indicating the single vineyard. We have tasted them.
Tasting

Germany's first “climate vintner”

Our discovery in the Kraichgau: David Klenert
Image: Pixabay
David Klenert is Germany's first “climate vintner”. His winery in Kraichtal-Münzesheim, founded in 2015, is not only certified organic, the young winemaker even goes one step further. His approach to improving the quality of the soil and thus helping to reduce global CO2 consumption initially led him to a farmer friend. From there he adopted ideas from regenerative agriculture, with the aim of gradually increasing the natural humus content of his vineyard soils from the current 1.5 to up to four percent. Depending on the soil type, this corresponds to a binding of an additional 70 to 130 tonnes of CO2 per hectare.
Tasting

The single vineyards' common thread

Geological diversity in the Tesch winery
Image: Deutsches Weininstitut
The Tesch winery in Langenlonsheim can look back on a good three hundred years of history. The winery is a prime example of the successful synthesis of tradition and modernity. The microbiologist, who holds a doctorate, consistently cut off old habits. He banned the obsolete natural cork in favour of a screw cap and left the regional association of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter on the Nahe because his marketing concept did not fit the ideology of the elitist association. However, Tesch is by no means an avant-gardist. Rather, he knows how to present his dry Rieslings in a contemporary style. These, in turn, show no stylistic ingratiation with the zeitgeist. On the contrary. Soils, exposure of the vineyards, microclimate and vintage are reflected unadulterated in the six single vineyard wines.
Tasting

The Wachau in motion

Stepping on the botrytis brake
Image: Pixabay
For a long time, anyone looking for the best dry Rieslings in the world could hardly avoid the Wachau. Names like F. X. Pichler, Franz Hirtzberger or Emmerich Knoll filled the glossy pages of wine magazines for decades. Their Smaragd wines, grown on the slopes and steep slopes of the Danube valley between Melk and Krems, fetched top prices. They still do, but more than a few wineries in the region have recently complained about dwindling interest in their wines. The trend towards leaner, lower-alcohol wines proved incompatible with the opulent, high-alcohol and often botrytised Rieslings and Grüne Veltliners produced here. So the Wachau is a hopeless case? Not at all. For our tasting, we specifically searched for winemakers whose wines meet the contemporary desire of wine drinkers for fine, elegant white wines with a moderate alcohol content.
Tasting

It cannot be more Rotliegend!

The renaissance of the Rhine front
Image: weinfreaks.de
The vineyards of the Roter Hang have probably the greatest potential within Rhinehessen to produce great and individual wines. From Nackenheim to the Nierstein district of Schwabsburg, a formation of Rotliegend runs through the vineyards of the Rhine front, giving the wines, especially the Rieslings, their distinctive and sometimes highly individual character. In the 19th century, the wines from the Roter Hang enjoyed worldwide renown and fetched top prices at international auctions. Afterwards, however, viticulture on the Rhine front fell more and more into a largely home-made crisis. For some years now, however, the winegrowers of the Roter Hang have been increasingly pushing their way back into the limelight.