When should I drink German Riesling?

Kabinett and Spätlese Riesling pair low alcohol with high acidity and a little sweetness, a combination that keeps far longer than its delicacy suggests.

Wine style

Vintage

Drink 2022 – 2039

The window has just opened — drinking well now, and should improve further.

Windows are broad guides for well-made, well-stored examples of each style — producer, vintage quality and storage all shift them.

What sets the window

German Riesling has very high natural acidity, and in fruity Kabinett and Spätlese styles that acidity is balanced by residual sugar, often at under nine per cent alcohol. Between them, acid and sugar hold the wine together for a long time, so a bottle that seems light and fragile can run from three to twenty years after the vintage. Spätlese, picked riper and usually a little sweeter, sits towards the longer end; dry Trocken wines and simpler estate Rieslings usually drink earlier. Slate sites in the Mosel and the leading vineyards of the Rheingau and Nahe give wines that last particularly well.

Opened too early

Young fruity Riesling is not unpleasant — lime, green apple, white peach and a prickle of acidity — but it can be simple, with the sweetness sitting slightly apart from the acid. Some show a yeasty, sulphurous note when first opened, which usually blows off with air, and many go through a dumb phase a few years after bottling when the fruit closes down.

In the window

With age the sweetness integrates and the wine tastes drier than its analysis, while the fruit develops into dried apricot, honey, beeswax and the petrol note that Riesling drinkers prize. The colour deepens to gold. Because the acidity holds it all together, a mature Spätlese can taste startlingly fresh.

Which vintages are ready

On the calculator’s figures, the German Riesling vintages in their window in 2026 run from 2006 to 2023, and those from 2012 to 2017 sit around the likely peak. Anything from 2024 onwards is still ageing. Enter your own vintage above to check it.

Planning the meal? See what goes with something spicy or pork in the wine pairing finder, or how the windows are set on the drink window calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Why does old Riesling smell of petrol?

The note comes from a compound called TDN, which forms as certain precursors in Riesling grapes break down during bottle ageing. Sun exposure on the bunches and warm, dry vintages tend to increase it. A little reads as part of mature Riesling’s character; a lot can dominate. It rarely shows in young wine, so its arrival is one sign that a bottle is moving into its window.

What is the difference between Kabinett and Spätlese?

Both are Prädikat levels based on the ripeness of the grapes at harvest. Kabinett is the lightest, made from grapes picked at normal ripeness, and tends to be delicate and low in alcohol. Spätlese means late harvest: the grapes are riper, and the wine is usually fuller and a little sweeter, though dry Spätlese exists too. Neither term on its own tells you how sweet the wine will be.

Cellar Book tracks every bottle’s window and tells you what to open tonight.

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