Der Feinschmecker recommends 500 wineries

HAMBURG: The current 2024 vintage presented many German winegrowers with extraordinary challenges with a very warm spring, a disastrous late frost and lots of rain. Despite all the adversity, the wines are now surprisingly powerful, rich in extract and aromatic - great cool-climate wines that show what makes cool wine regions so special. Every year since 2000, Der Feinschmecker has presented the 500 best wines in a pocket guide and online at www.feinschmecker.de, each with a description, rating and wine tips for every budget. For the new edition of the Wine Guide (enclosed with the 1/2026 issue of Feinschmecker), thirteen experienced jurors spent more than a week tasting the approximately 4,000 wines of the current vintage submitted by the wineries.

"The Burgundy varieties in particular shine this year with intense flavours, while the Rieslings show a good balance of fruit, acidity and mineral backbone. Riesling also cuts a very fine figure as sparkling wine in this vintage, with high-quality German sparkling wines now coming from almost all German wine regions," explains Gabriele Heins, editor-in-chief of Der Feinschmecker. "What initially looked like a difficult year turned out to be an impressive collection of characterful, aromatically clear growths in the glass."

Despite official reports, alcohol-free wines appear to remain a niche topic: High production costs, high sugar levels and often unconvincing flavours slow down demand, which is probably why they were hardly represented in the tastings of the gourmet jury. However, the experience factor is developing positively: creative formats such as yoga and concerts in the vineyard or wine hotel offers are making wine more tangible than ever for guests.

Gourmets chose Sebastian Fürst from Franconia as Winemaker of the Year. "Hardly anywhere else in the country produces such consistently good Pinot Noirs. The current collection also shows how sensitively and confidently Sebastian Fürst is leading his father Paul's legacy into the future, also with a view to nature-friendly wine. 2023 and 2022 are great wines in the making," said the jury, explaining their choice.

The 32-year-old Hans-Christoph Stolleis from the Palatinate, who impressed the jury with a strong, harmonious collection, was honoured with the Discovery of the Year award. "From the easy-drinking Riesling to the pointed site character, each of the certified organic wines is on point," said the experts. The gourmet judges chose the Geheimrat J . Wegeler winery from the Rheingau region as the collection of the year . It consists exclusively of Riesling and impressed the jury with its stylistic clarity, technical precision and class .

The gourmet up-and-comers of the year are:

1. Weingut Eva Fricke, Rheingau
2. Griesel & Compagnie, Hessische Bergstraße
3. Toni Jost Winery, Middle Rhine
4. Joh. Bapt. Schäfer Winery, Nahe
5. Schwedhelm Winery, Palatinate
6. Gröhl Winery, Rheinhessen
7. Meyer Winery, Franconia
8. Leon Gold Winery, Württemberg
9. Winery Carlo Schmitt, Mosel
10. Andreas Dilger Winery, Baden

The Wine Guide 2026 jury consisted of: Kristine Bäder, Ina Finn, Gabriele Heins, Miguel Montfort, Carine Patricio, Dr Jens Priewe, Christoph Raffelt, Nicole Retter, Sebastian Russold, Ingo Swoboda, Levent Tarhan, Kersten Wetenkamp and Maximilian Wilm.

Click here for the 500 best wineries: https://www.feinschmecker.de/best-of/winzer-und-weine