Riesling Cup 2012

The Riesling Cup is an award for the best dry German Riesling announced annually by the Hamburg magazine 'The Gourmet'. The ceremony takes place at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich. This year more than 400 wineries submitted their best 2011 dry Rieslings that were blind tasted and evaluated by an international jury. 

Riesling Cup 2012

The tasting venue at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. A little fun fact: this is the same hotel that Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window, you remember that? And someone has made a shrine for him in front of the hotel...strange if you ask me

The top 13 producers in no particular order: Weingut Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken, Weingut Egert, Weingut Emrich-Schönleber, Hessisches Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach, Weingut Karthäuserhof, Weingut Dr. Loosen, Weingut Bühler, Weingut Ferdinand Abel, Weingut Toni Jost-Hahnenhof, Weingut Ökonomierat Kleinmann, Weingut Robert Weil, Weingut Bürgermeister Schweinhardt, Weingut Andreas Laible

The presentation of the Riesling Cup and the winner is, for the third year in a row, Weingut Hermann Donnhoff.

A good majority of the Rieslings submitted to the tasting panel were sold out but the producers brought other wines to the tasting to represent their wineries. Below are just a few wines I had the pleasure of tasting, some winners some not but all great wines and very impressive.

Ranked #12: Weingut Emrich-Schönleber from the Nahe for their 2011 Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling QbA trocken Großes Gewächs [not pictured]

 

Ranked  #9: Weingut Karthäuserhof from the Mosel/Ruwer for their 2011 Karthäuserhofberg Riesling QbA trocken Großes Gewächs [not pictured]

Weingut Huber is better known for their Spatburgunder and is considered one of the best in Germany. I concur!

I finally got to taste Weingut Keller! I tried making a tasting appointment at the winery but unfortunately for me and fortunately for them they were all sold out. Beautiful wine and the fact they were sold out speaks for itself. 

Group shot with Dominik Sona, my boss, and Ernie Loosen after a long evening of tasting...good times J

For a full list of the winners check out this article.