The Rheingau’s Winning 2024, Finding Balance in Friuli and Portugal’s White Wine Power

The tasting team at JamesSuckling.com tapped into 677 wines over the past week from 10 countries, with Senior Editor Stuart Pigott continuing his deep dive into the 2024 vintage in Germany, revealing that the Rheingau did extremely well that year despite the serious challenge the moist fall posed to winemakers due to the spread of rot and slow ripening of the heathy grapes.

This success, Stuart said, can partly be attributed to the steep vineyards with stony soils found in Rudesheimer Berg and Lorch, which tend to come through such wet conditions best owing to the excellent drainage there.

The star of Lorch is Eva Fricke, who founded her winery as a start-up in 2006, and once again she blew Stuart’s mind with her finest dry wines. The Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Krone Trocken 2024, with its incredibly intense nose of lemon balm, yuzus and Amalfi lemons plus extraordinarily concentration and supercharged wet-stone minerality, is one of the wines of the vintage on the Rhine.

Right on its heels is the Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Eltville Collection Dry 2024, an incredibly compact dry white with giant chalky minerality. It has great citrus and garden herb complexity through the extremely long, complete finish. Here the great age of the vines, once owned by the now defunct Schloss Eltz winery, seems to have been a decisive factor.

“It wasn’t an easy harvest, but that didn’t mean it was impossible to make great wines,“ Frick explained. “But due to the very selective harvest, yields are really low and quantities limited.“

Not every part of the Rheingau was so lucky. “It was very difficult and in some places impossible to reach the ripeness level we want for dry wines,“ explained Fred Prinz of Weingut Prinz in the high-altitude Hallgarten district. “However, for the light-bodied Kabinett category we could harvest optimum grapes.“

The most extraordinary of these is the Prinz Riesling Rheingau Jungfer Kabinett (Auction Wine) 2024, a gravity-defying, off-dry wine with extraordinarily concentration for its light to medium body. The vibrancy, brilliance and wet-stone minerality are all off the scale.

Less expansive and easier to find due to the larger quantity produced, the Prinz Riesling Rheingau Hallgarten Hendelberg Kabinett 2024 is also a radical riesling with gigantic racy acidity and incredibly precise aromas of crisp pears, white peaches and Asian pears. It, too, is dangerously refreshing.

These will delight those riesling freaks who feel nostalgic for the wines of the 1980s and early 1990s, when the climate was cooler, grape ripeness was lower and acidities were higher. Many 2024 German rieslings mimic this flavor profile.

Kloster Eberbach, the erstwhile State Wine Domaine of the Rheingau, remains the region’s largest producer, and since 2018 winemaker Kathrin Puff has made steady progress there, so much so that 2024 is her most consistent vintage for dry and off-dry rieslings.

The Kloster Eberbach Riesling Rheingau Steinberg Goldener Becher GG 2024 is the star of the excellent range. It is very compact with a giant structure, a sleek masterpiece from the heart of the legendary Steinberg site with deftly interlocking fine tannins and stony minerality.

Stuart was also knocked out by a trio of TBA dessert wines that Puff made in the 2023 vintage. Stuart’s personal favorite is the Kloster Eberbach Riesling Rheingau Raunethaler Baiken Trockenbeerenauslese 2023, a great classic in this category. It has gigantic dried apricot and mango chutney flavors and is very compact, but with dazzling citrusy acidity, this super-concentrated dessert wine makes an extremely bold statement.

The 2024 vintage wines at the Kunstler winery in Hochheim at the eastern end of the Rheingau, one of German’s most consistently brilliant producers during the last years, also impressed. The Künstler Riesling Rheingau Hölle GG 2024 is a giant dry riesling with fantastic density for 2024 and all the racy brilliance of the vintage. There’s an amazing tension between the expansive minerality and cool apricot fruit that doesn’t want to stop.

Stuart was equally stunned by two of winemaker Gunter Kunstler’s top dry whites from the central section of the Rheingau, which might appear to have been at a disadvantage in 2024 due to the deep water-retentive soils. However, nobody puts in more hard work in the vineyard than Kunstler and his team.

The Künstler Riesling Rheingau Marcobrunn GG 2024 has incredible mineral and candied citrus intensity. Enormous wild herb intensity is packed onto the medium- to full-bodied palate, the bold finish very radical. With its orange blossom and peach aromas, the Künstler Riesling Rheingau Pfaffenberg Monopol GG 2024 is fantastically elegant, but also has titanic depth in the super-compact finish.

Scroll down to find the many other remarkable wines from this producer’s expansive range of GGs, one of the largest anywhere in Germany.

Finding a Balance in Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Ask about the style of Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s wines and you’ll get different answers: some will say they are fruit-driven, others insist they are defined by minerality. The truth lies in a rare balance between the two.

The growing season here is long, thanks to a continental climate often tempered by marine influences, especially in the vineyards exposed to breezes rising from the Adriatic. Add to that the signature of mostly calcareous or schist soils with their typical “ponka” – a layer of ancient rock composed of sandstone and marl – which consistently lend the wines a distinct minerality. Alongside international varieties cultivated here for decades – chardonnay and sauvignon blanc – the region is home to ribolla gialla, malvasia, friulano and even vitovska. Pinot grigio, often neutral elsewhere, finds in this corner of Italy its most expressive terroir, acquiring both fruit complexity and mineral depth.

The 2023 vintage, complicated by a rainy spring and heavy downy mildew pressure, has produced surprisingly well-balanced wines marked by superb minerality. Meanwhile, early 2024 releases suggest a fresher, more vibrant year that promises thrilling bottles.

Leading our week of tastings is, as predicted, a blend – but one far less conventional than most. The Jermann Venezia-Giulia Capo Martino 2023 combines malvasia and ribolla gialla in a strikingly aromatic wine with honeysuckle and other white flowers, dried lemons and Korean pear. Medium-bodied, with a taut palate and tangy, vivid finish, it shows the region’s typical energy without sacrificing fruit complexity.

From the same producer comes a distinctly territorial interpretation of chardonnay in the Venezia Giulia Where Dreams Have No End 2023. Laden with caramel and honey on the nose and palate, it adds biscuits, dried lemon and mango, all framed by a freshness that gives the wine structure and vitality. “A fantastic chardonnay,” James commented.

Another standout is the Attems Sauvignon Blanc Collio Cicinis 2024, offering impressive freshness and brightness, with sliced pear, apple, oyster shell, jasmine and honeysuckle. Perfumed and mineral, with flinty and matchstick notes at the close, it’s crunchy and taut, just as a top sauvignon should be.

This corner of Italy also produces the country’s most compelling pinot grigio. The standout this year is the Schiopetto Collio Pinot Grigio 2024, a benchmark for the variety, showing purity and poise. Notes of peach stone, raw almond and citrus blossom mingle with flinty character and a touch of lime pith, all lifted by superb freshness and minerality. Elegant, long and laser-focused, it is “among the finest of its kind, if not the best,” James said of it.

The Kante Vitovska Venezia-Giulia 2022 is also memorable – an intensely mineral wine with chalk, white pepper and lemon oil. It is light in body yet shows precision and tension – perfect for palates that seek linear, vertical freshness.

Few places in Italy can claim wines of such strong personality as the northeast, where rustic natives like ribolla gialla coexist seamlessly with noble varieties, far removed from tired international cliches.

Portugal's White Wine Power

Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade and Staff Writer Courtney Humiston spent the past week tasting exceptional white wines throughout Portugal and meeting with more than a dozen of the country's top producers. Both the 2023 and 2024 vintages are fresh, elegant and balanced, while some older vintages they tasted prove that Portuguese whites have the power and finesse to age beautifully.

In Vinho Verde, several of our top-scoring wines were made by Anselmo Mendes, showcasing the range that alvarinho has beyond its reputation for simple, high-acid, slightly spritzy wines. His Alvarinho Vinho Verde Monção e Melgaço Curtimenta 2023 gains depth, texture and aromatics from 24 hours on the skins, while the Parcela Única 2021, which is fermented and aged in new French barrels, is a rich and full-bodied wine with incredible length.

Loureiro, a lesser-known grape variety from Vinho Verde, also made a strong showing. "Everyone talks about alavarinho, but no one talks about loureiro," said Marcio Lopes, just one of the winemakers we spoke with who truly believes in the potential for the grape to make profound and ageworthy wines. The Márcio Lopes Loureiro Vinho Verde Pequeños Rebentos Vinhas Velhas 2023, aged in Puligny barrels, is elegant and chiseled with lovely phenolic tension.

In Douro, we found that the best white wines are coming from high-elevation plateaus where there is greater diurnal shift and more granitic soils compared with the blue schist of the valley. Here, the native rabigato grape thrives.

Winemaker Luis Seabra said they typically harvest their white grapes in October, which is especially good for late-ripening varieties like rabigato.

His Luis Seabra Douro Branco Xisto Ilimitado 2024 stands out for balancing remarkable freshness with satisfying richness and concentration. Through all of his whites, there is a nervy minerality and stony character. While not fruity wines, they are very drinkable.

Mateus Nicolau de Almeida and Theresa Ameztoy made a study of the rabigato grape for their Erimitas line of wines, vinifying three wines from differing soil types. The Mateus Nicolau de Almeida Douro Branco Superior Erimitas Antão do Deserto 2021 has a rich texture and long finish while still maintaining freshness and salinity.

In Barraida, Jacobo and Courtney met with Filipa Pato and William Wouters at their home and winery. Pato is fiercely committed to the local bical grape and poured their Filipa Pato & William Wouters Bical Bairrada Branco Nossa Calcário 2022, which is a powerful yet elegant and precise wine with just 12 percent alcohol. A core of acidity is surrounded by round, sumptuous fruit and a sensation of tannins on the finish.

In the high-elevation, granitic region of Dao, Jacobo and Courtney tasted with Nuno Mira do Ó and Carlos Raposo, both of whom are combining a modern sensibility with a dedication to ancient varieties and organic vineyard practices at their respective wineries.

"When I started making wine, everyone was making big, extracted wine and I did just the opposite,” said Mira do Ó. “For elegant wines, I felt that the Dao was the future and also the past. The Dao was always known for elegance and freshness and in the 90s it lost its personality and was going against its true nature."

From his estate vineyard, he works with indigenous grapes like encruzado, and ferments in a mix of concrete eggs, ceramic barrels and more traditional oak casks. The Mira do Ó Encruzado Dão Branco Druida Vinha da Pedra Azul 2023 is fermented and aged in two large concrete eggs and is wonderfully aromatic with vibrant layers of citrus and stone flavors, a pleasant creaminess and a long saline finish.

Raposo is also finiding success with concrete for his old vine whites. His Dão Branco Definido Vinhas Velhas 2023 comes from vines that are nearly 100 years old. Fermented and aged in concrete, it's an austere and mineral-driven wine with compelling layers of richness and acidity.

– Stuart Pigott, Aldo Fiordelli and Courtney Humiston contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

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