Germany 2018
Germany’s 2018 vintage is one that will go down in the records books for several reasons. It is possibly the biggest, almost certainly the earliest, and very likely one of the driest on record – a vintage that saw almost uninterrupted sunshine from May until harvest started in mid- September. Most regions had one or two refreshing rain events during the growing season, but otherwise it was sunny, warm, and overall, exceptionally dry. There was no frost, and almost nothing lost to hail – the most notable exceptions being two of Klaus-Peter Keller’s top sites Morstein and Abts E, both of which had their production trimmed by around one third by a severe hail storm on the 1st June.