For over five years now, vom Boden has been offering an unparalleled deep dive into one of the most magical parts of German wine: The German wine auctions.
These auctions, held once a year in the fall (this year, Friday and Saturday, November 13th and 14th), are little understood in the U.S. While the easy selling line is something like, “this is your chance to buy the greatest and rarest wines of Germany” – and that line is 100% true – I think it undermines, or at least takes a detour around, the beautiful human tradition of the event. It pushes to the side what’s reallyimportant about all this, like selling the Statue of Liberty based on the incredible views of New York City it affords.
Please read our history of the auction, below, for more on the magic of these auctions. But first, we should state this clearly and loudly: WHILE THERE ARE ALWAYS SOME INCREDIBLY HIGH PRICES PAID, THERE ARE A LOT OF AFFORDABLE WINES SOLD AT THIS AUCTION. This isn’t going to be bargain shopping; but you don’t have to wear an ascot to bid either.
We can help you find the deals and give you tips on the growers and the wines – please see below. We’ve had the unique opportunity to taste well over 40 auction wines from Egon Müller, Keller, Lauer, Willi Schaefer, Emrich-Schönleber, Schäfer-Fröhlich, Schloss Lieser, von Schubert, Wittmann and many more. We are proud to have partnered with the VDP to host the largest auction preview dinner in the U.S.
In short: In the U.S. at least, I don’t think there is anyone else in this as deeply as we are.
If you would like to bid, vom Boden will once again be providing complete consulting and bidding services. PLEASE REACH OUT ASAP AS BIDS MUST BE PLACED BY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH!
Big Picture Thoughts on the 2021 Auctions To some extent, the strength of the auction is based on the strength of the preceding vintage – while growers may offer wines from any back vintage (Zilliken, for example, is offering a 1991 Eiswein) – normally the major thrust of the event is the preceding vintage. So for the 2021 auctions, the events will be focusing on the 2020 vintage in Germany.
And the 2020 vintage came to the market in the shadow of the widely celebrated 2019ers. As is so often the case, once a blockbuster vintage shows up, people indulge… and then they just can’t face the next vintage, no matter the details.
And the details of 2020 are perhaps best summed up by the gentlemen of Mosel Fine Wines:“2020 is all about filigreed ripeness with some stunning wines with a lightness and finesse not seen in a decade.” Sure, you have to be a bit more curatorial in 2020 than in 2019 – every wine is not a triumph – but there are wines with a rare levity and energy. If you missed out buying enough wine in vintages like 2004, 2008, 2010 or 2013… well – how about you don’t make that mistake again?
For the purists, in many ways, 2020 is a vintage in the Mosel that offers us exactly what we truly, truly love about German wine. (Or, at the very least, it offers what we say we love about German wine.)
And when you exit the Mosel and focus on the Nahe, the Rheingau, Rheinhessen and Pfalz, I’m honestly not certain 2019 is generically or categorically better than 2020. Granted, my palate tends more towards finesse and energy, but I may actually prefer the 2020ers from these places. All this to say, it’s slightly more complicated than one vintage good and one vintage less good. For more on the 2020 vintage, please see our “This is not a 2020 vintage report” here.
With that introduction, despite my wise warning, I think it’s safe to say the 2020 vintage will not have the same draw as last year. From that perspective, I would guess bidding will not be quite as strong. On the other hand, I think there are hundreds of people discovering (or rediscovering) German wine every day. As I’ve written widely, I believe there is a profound renaissance taking place in Germany right now and in the 2000+ year history of viticulture in this place, I do not think there has ever been a time where as much truly, great, great wine is being made. With exploding prices in Burgundy, I think the great dry wines of Germany are nothing short of a revelation. And with nearly all wines becoming ever-more powerful, the lightness of the delicately off-dry styles has perhaps never been as appreciated. From this perspective, I would expect bidding to be stronger.
My best guess? These two forces will cancel each other out, and we’ll see prices roughly in line with last year.
vom Boden’s Top 10 List I loathe these sorts of things: “best of” lists, points, scores – anything that dumbs down something so wildly complex and beautiful, well, it makes me a bit sad. So let’s think of this more as a list of “10 things you should watch!” I’ll try and make some outrageous predictions and when I’m wrong you can all send me emails pointing out how wrong I was. Deal? 🙂 The list is ordered as the lots appear, not in order of importance, etc. There are plenty of incredibly lovely wines not on this list!
1. Lot 5, Mosel GG Auction. Lauer’s 2020 Schonfels GG en magnum The Mosel VDP auction will begin, as it did last year, with the “GG” or “Grand Cru dry wine” selections. For my money, there are really only two producers to watch: Fritz Haag and Florian Lauer. I somehow missed the Haag collection, which is lame of me – Oliver has always been a very kind and decent person when I’ve met him and I’ve heard amazing things about his 2020 collection. Florian Lauer, however, really makes the big news of this section of the auction with his first-ever entry of a “GG” – Florian will be auctioning off 120 magnums of his Schonfels GG. Sourced from one of the most dramatic sites in the Saar, with ungrafted vines over 100 years old, this wine also happens to be one of the highest-rated dry wines of the Mosel. I tasted the wine in August of this year with Florian in Germany. While I find nearly all super-young GGs to be inscrutable, the wine was so obviously the sharpest, clearest, most detailed dry wine I’ve ever had from him. It was just superb. There are exactly 30 cases of this wine coming to the U.S. in 750ml format; so this will be very hard to find in 750ml through normal channels. The auction is the *only* place you can find the magnums. Florian in general tries to keep his auction prices quite low (which I think speaks a lot to his character) by sending a lot of wine to auction. Note that he’s sending 900 bottles of his Kabinett to the auction! Only Egon Müller can (and does) send the same amount, while also keeping his prices up. Florian is doing a similar thing with the GG – he’s sending 120 magnums, or the equivalent of 240 bottles. Note that Haag, as a comparison, is sending only 15 magnums to the auction (last year the magnum GG sold at 225 Euros). It’s hard to gauge demand: This is a first for Florian and while the Schonfels is a cult bottling among a select few, it is not (yet) a huge name. I spoke to Florian – he thinks prices will be between 90 and 150 Euros; I could see prices here landing higher, upwards of 200+ Euros, which is still a ludicrous deal. I will be going deep here, especially if the price stays below 100 Euro.
2. Lot 24/25, Mosel Auction. Schloss Lieser’s 2020 Sonnenuhr Auslese GK I’ve always been a fan of Thomas Haag’s minimalist, cut style; the wines always have edges. However, as with the GGs, I often find tasting very young dessert-level wines tricky – they all taste just sweet as hell. They’re delicious, don’t get me wrong, but I have a hard time assessing much more than the general balance. It’s like trying to evaluate a fighter jet that shrieks by overhead. “That was very loud and very fast?” is about all I could imagine saying. Commenting on the quality of the stabilizers or the cockpit appointments seems a bit ludicrous. Yet, even in this young, forceful youth, Lieser’s Auslese GK flaunts a rather uncommon transparency; for a wine with the luxuriousness of botrytis, this wine is gossamer and clear with a beautiful mineral quality. I did note the rare delicacy a lot of the 2020 higher-Prädikat wines seem to showcase; in these vintages of “less” often times the delicate dash of restraint offers these top, top wines a noticeable finesse – a fine-ness that I very much appreciate. See number 5, below, for perhaps the apex of this comment / quality in a wine.
3. Lot 26/27, Mosel Auction. Willi Schaefer’s 2020 Domprobst Kabinett I predicted we’d see the first 100-point Kabinett in a few years. Then it happened this year: yes, Julian Haart’s 2020 Ohligsberg Kabinett “Alte Reben” was judged “perfect” – the first in the history of the world so far as I can tell. Last year Keller’s Schubertslay Kabinett garnered 700 Euro at the VDP Nahe/Rheinhessen auction and, even more shockingly, Egon Müller’s auction Kabinett went for a higher price than his auction Spätlese last year! There is no doubt: This is the year of the Kabinett. German wine dorks (like myself) have long been singing the praises of the Kabinett, but now the collectors are beginning to take notice. Prices are going up for this category and I believe it will accelerate quickly from here. As for Schaefer, well, they are simply one of the most soulful estates in the Mosel: Beautiful people making beautiful wine in a human scale. Unfortunately for us all, the collectors have noticed this too. Prices for the Schaefer wines jumped dramatically last year; I expect the same to happen again. Additionally, they did not offer a Kabinett last year, so I think there will be some built up demand. My prediction? This wine will be only the third Kabinett to break the 100-Euro barrier, along with Egon Müller and Keller. Let’s see.
4. Lot 30, Mosel Auction. Clemens Busch’s 2020 Marienburg Kabinett Fass 2034 Clemens, like Lauer, doesn’t play pricing games at the auction – he’ll be sending 720 bottles of this Kabinett to the auction. This is, perennially, along with Lauer’s Kabinett, one of the steals of the vintage. Yes, it is a more luxurious style than the airier Saar Kabinett of Lauer, but it is stunningly clear and well balanced. Last year it went for 20 Euros! Also, come on, it’s “Fass 2034!” – I’m just a sucker for illogically-long Fass numbers. I don’t see how you don’t bid on this wine. And for the collectors, there’s a 100-point TBA GK from the 2018 vintage going on the block. I’ll be very curious to see where this lands. Opening bid is 300 Euro for the half-bottle.
> You’ll note the wines of J.J. Prüm are nowhere on this list! This has *nothing* to do with the quality – I simply wasn’t able to taste in Wehlen this year and so I don’t have anything first-hand to say. The scores are superb and I’m sure the wines are too.
5. Lot 48-52, Mosel Auction. Egon Müller’s 2020 Scharzhofberger Auslese GK Recommending Egon is like recommending a Porsche to someone who wants a fast car: it’s both very correct and very obvious. In short, you do not need me to recommend Egon’s wines, though I am anyway. Some interesting things to watch. First, will the Spätlese again be outbid by the Kabinett? I think maybe, though again it will be only barely. This means, the elite bargain-hunter might consider going longer on the Spätlesen. Many feel this is the true strength of 2020 – I’m not 100% of that opinion, but either way the wine is very, very, very good. Also worth noting is Egon’s Auslese GK – for me it is one of the greatest young dessert wines I’ve ever had. I believe it was harvested at BA levels though the natural restraint of the vintage gives it an unholy clarity and levity – there is minerality apparent, even at this young stage. It is just painfully good and it may present something of a relevant bargain.
6. Lot 54, Mosel Auction. Egon Müller / Le Gallais’s 2020 Braune Kupp Spätlese For those who don’t know, the “Le Gallais” vines are tended by Egon Müller and his crew; the grapes are harvested and the wines are vinified at Scharzhof. In short, these are Egon Müller wines from a riper site, the Braune Kupp. Again, however, the natural restraint of the vintage offered these wines a bit more clarity, finesse and lift than normal. Superb collection.
7. Lot 60-63, Mosel Auction. Peter Lauer 2020 Kabinett and Spätlesen I’m obviously not a neutral party, but for me Florian Lauer’s Kabinett and Spätlesen are among the very, very best at the auction, period. Stylistically, yes, they are different, yet qualitatively for me they are unquestionably on the same quality level as Egon Müller in the Saar, and as Prüm and Willi Schaefer in the Mosel. And yet, year after year, they trade at somewhere between a 50-90% discount. Part of that, as discussed, is a question of quantity. Lauer is sending 900 bottles of Kabinett to auction – Prüm is sending no Kabinett and only 264 bottles of Spätlese, Willi Schaefer is sending 600 bottles of Kabinett. (Only the singular Egon can send 900 bottles of his Kabinett to auction and keep his prices high!) That said, this explains only some of the pricing discrepancies. The other part, well… honestly I have no idea. People are talking, Florian’s scores in 2020 are very good – I expect the pricing to keep creeping up, but I don’t think they will explode this year. So, cautiously, I say go big again. We have maybe a 2-5-year window to buy Lauer at reasonable prices. Interesting to watch this year will be the GG magnum (see wine number 1 in this list, above) and the first-ever release of Lauer’s auction Kabinett, in magnum. There are only 30 going to auction, so I could see these getting a premium, but my best guess is if they go over 100 Euros, it won’t be by that much. Another absolute steal.
8. Lot N9-N11, Nahe Auction. Emrich-Schönleber 2020 “Auf der Lay” GG This is another one of those curious cases of the auction; for me this is one of the greatest dry wines made in Germany. It has density and palate weight, yet is finessed and compact, tensile, with just layers of a profound minerality. In short, it has everything. Previously, the wine was only offered in magnum and 3.0L format; the magnums went for 328 Euros last year which is not an inexpensive date, though that’s only 164 Euro a bottle, which is not an insanely high tariff given the quality and rarity. This year, for the first time ever, the estate will release 750mls of the wine; I expect pricing for 750mls to be 170-200 Euro. I could see magnums creeping up towards 400 Euro and the ten 3.0L being offered will be in the neighborhood of 1,000 Euro. As with Lauer, I’d say we have a 2-5 year window here before this wine becomes much, much more expensive than it is now. Honestly maybe a shorter window with Emrich-Schönleber.
9. Lot N20, Nahe Auction. Joh. Bapt. Schäfer 2020 Goldloch Kabinett There are two options winemakers have when selecting their auction wines: they can try and “show more” or they can try and “show less.” I don’t think there is inherently a right or wrong answer here, though I tend to be less impressed by the “Kabinett” that is really a Spätlese Gold Capsule – this is the “show more” theory in action. A very famous winemaker in the Rheinhessen told me last year to try Sebastian Schäfer’s Kabinett, saying it was simple and pure and delicious, and I did. I bought three bottles and was blown away. This is the “show less” theory in action; it necessitates the winemaker choose the wine that pairs back the terroir only to its most essential, most basic, most crystalline. This is a genius little bottle of wine, a Kabinett-as-mineral-water, a treatise in refreshment and perfect simplicity and clarity and focus. This is, unquestionably, the first bottle empty at the table. If I was making a list of 11 I’d include Caroline Diel and her Burg Layer Schlossberg Kabinett here too – same basic idea. Also a superb wine in 2020.
> For those following along with the bidding sheet, yes I skipped Keller. Obviously, if you have the resources, these wines are do-not-miss. Just as obviously, neither Klaus Peter and Julia Keller nor you need me telling you these wines are among the greatest wines made on earth. Bid if you can.
10. Lot N31, Nahe Auction. Schäfer-Fröhlich 2019 Felseneck Auslese GK You probably also don’t need me to tell you Tim Fröhlich is in the same elite league as Keller. That said, Tim is nearly always the last wine of the auction season, and he nearly always presents a wine one vintage behind what most people are showing. This year he is presenting his 2019 Felseneck Auslese GK. I am always, always blown away by how clear and forceful these wines are. They always show terroir, minerality. This is one of the top sweet wines of the vintage, for me – it will probably land around 200 Euros for the half-bottle. I would if you can.
The History, the Magic… As for the history, well, let’s go back a little over a century.
As with Burgundy, the Mosel was a land of small farmers and winemakers long before it was a place with wine estates as we currently understand them. Through most of the early 20th century, the majority of winemakers worked their tiny plots, made relatively small amounts of wine in their 1,000L Mosel barrels (referred to as “Fuder”). These winemakers did not sell their wines in bottle; rather they sold these wines, by the barrel, to the negociants and bottlers who would then complete the process, transporting the barrel, bottling it, labeling it, and finally marketing it to the thirsty public.
And here’s the magic: these negociants would send their savviest tasters, pros who would stroll through the cellars, tasting barrel by barrel, and buying the best ones – because as anyone who has barrel-sampled knows, each barrel has its own identity.
In other words, despite all our scientific advancement and technological sophistication, we have not mastered the complexity of fermentation, the unfathomable influences of a barrel, the life of a certain yeast in a certain year, the indelible fingerprint of terroir. Every barrel is just not created equally, even if the winemaker herself doesn’t know why one tastes different than the other. It just does, and that fact is fucking magical.
Of course, the easy, rational, simple, logical and commercial thing to do, would be to blend all these barrels in a larger tank, averaging out your wine as it were. Frankly, this is what happens 99.9% of the time with winemaking around the world (and there are interesting philosophical arguments as to why this is also a sort of fascinating, beautiful truth).
The German wine auctions, however, represent the 00.1% – the whole process is an acknowledgment of how complicated, mysterious, beautiful and ultimately unknowable, the act – the art – of winemaking really is. It is a nod to the tradition of how wines were discussed and sold before we got so ****ing efficient and slick. You may have gathered this already, but I love it.
You want to really geek out? Buy some damn auction wine.
Selected Results from the 2020 VDP Auctions last year…
