Coming off the universally acknowledged ‘great’ vintage of 2019, 2020 would always be a vintage looking over its shoulder. But considering the silky lusciousness and richness of recent vintages, 2020 is a welcome return to Mosel classicism.
Shimmering purity, intense flavours. juicy, tip toe balance, textural, tense, filigreed elegance, mineral infused finishes and penetrating freshness. It is also a vintage of vineyard differences and clear demarcation between the pradikats.
Wine professionals are often swept up in what Freud would call the narcissism of minor differences. Not since 2014 are the contrasts so clear, and flattering. They are all wonderful, and different. Warm, dry and low yielding vintages of recent years have seen Kabinett’s seem like Spatlese, Spatlese like Auslese and so on. But in 2020, we have a range of wines where the respective Pradikat levels are clearly defined.
Critics love concentration. Love it. For those of you who bask in hot rays of hedonism, 2020 may seem a little frisky. As I get older and fatter, I revel in wines of lightness, freshness and joy. Power is necessary for great wine, and there is plenty to be had here. But they are not the massive crude power of 16-inch naval guns, more like the smiling assassin with a knife under their cloak.
