Blown away in 2020

Online retailer Honest Grapes has been blown away with the stunning 2018 Grosses Gewachs releases from Germany, with some astonishing wines from from trailblazers Clemens Busch in the Mosel and Rainer Schnaitmann near Stuttgart. They caught up with Rita Busch to see if Germany can continues its incredible run of form with the 2020 vintage.

“The wine year 2020 was not easy for us,” begins Rita, “like so many other things that happened during this year. After an extremely hot and dry summer the vines had been a bit stressed, but still looking ok. With the rain in September the ripeness of

the grapes went very fast, so we had to start picking in middle of September. 10 years before we would say: Never start before middle of October!”

Mosel Marienburg

The Marienburg Hill in the Mosel, where Clemens Busch coaxes some of the greatest Rieslings “The picking had to be done very carefully, because there is some damage from hail and sunburn. And now in the end some botrytis (noble-rot). The pickers had to pick out all the bad parts of the grapes to be sure, that finally the wine will have no bad influence of those berries. But they are working very well and do a great job. Now we can say, that the quantity and also the quality of the grapes are better then expected. That means we are looking for another good vintage of Clemens Busch Riesling.”