"2022 was the sunniest and, along with 2018, the warmest and driest year in Germany’s recorded history since 1881, and this is certainly also true for the cooler Mosel region where budbreak and flowering was early. After a rainy period in early June, during the end of flowering, yields were partly reduced but in acceptable quantities. Then, there was barely any rain until the end of the growing season. The upside: the grapes remained healthy. The downside: the grapes were in danger of not ripening in the drought, and the vines—and not just the young ones—even threatened to starve. And then, at the wrong time, at the end of August, the rain came. And it was useless. At least the rain didn’t bring a significant leap forward in terms of must weights and concentration, which both remained relatively low. At the same time, the acidity levels dropped sharply for those producers who waited too long, because they had to wait to reach the finish line in terms of fruit ripeness."
In etlichen Lagen muss der Trockenstress wirklich dramatisch gewesen sein:
"Ürzig for example. In certain parts, the partly terraced terroirs are so rocky that wise producers, such as Christian Hermann from Weingut Dr. Hermann, abandoned certain plots and cut off the grapes early enough just to rescue the vitality of the vines for the coming years. These extremely stressed vines produced good looking, golden-yellow grapes whose berries had must weights from below 60° Oechsle, though, reports Hermann. 'Even a drop of this must in your wine will make it taste terrible.'"
Am besten klar gekommen sind Winzer mit sehr alten und entsprechend tief wurzelnden Rebbeständen. Explizit lobend erwähnt sind die Weine von Max Ferd. Richter, wobei auch hier die restsüßen Weine besser abschneiden als die trockenen, laut Reinhardt ein generelles Muster des Jahrgangs.
Die Trockenheit hatte wie erwartet auch Auswirkungen auf die Mostgewichte. Zitat Markus Molitor: “You will not find any 2022 cru along the Mosel with natural 12% alcohol, not to mention 12.5%, [...] The ripeness simply wasn’t there.“
Da darf man schon auf die diesjährigen Mosel-GGs und deren Alkoholwerte gespannt sein (und dramatisch besser dürfte es in anderen Gebieten auch nicht aussehen). Aber der VDP hat ja dankenswerter Weise vorgesorgt - GGs sind ja nur Qualitätsweine, die darf man chaptalisieren. Und so kommt dann nicht nur die Weinsäuretüte zum Einsatz, sondern auch noch der Zuckersack

Gruß
Ulli