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Harvest season is a winery’s busiest time of year. It can be grueling and occasionally devastating, but also endlessly rewarding when the year’s crop of grapes are finally brought into the winery.

Every August, the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP), an association of 200-plus renowned wine estates in Germany, hosts its “Sneak Preview VDP Grosses Gewächs” event.

In late August, I joined colleagues from around the world in Wiesbaden, Germany, for the 2023 preview of the VDP. Grosses Gewächs (GG) top dry wines.

Many people might still associate Germany with sweet Riesling and sweet Riesling only, but that’s officially an antiquated way of thinking. Yes, high-quality bottlings of off-dry and sweet wines are still very much around.

There are two key dates each September for lovers and collectors of German wine: the Trier and Bad Kreuznach auctions, to be held on the 15th and 17th of September 2023, respectively.

Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia were front and center on our tasting trail in August as we rated nearly 2,700 wines from the four countries out of the 3,199 bottles in total we tapped into during the month from 18 countries, including such outliers as Brazil, England, Poland and Romania.

Kerner is a German grape that was developed in 1929 as a cross between Riesling and Trollinger (also known as Schiava Grossa and Vernatsch). It was introduced in the 1960s, first in Germany and then Italy, where it is mainly used in several regional appellations in Alto Adige/Südtirol.

Uni’s flavors are at once demure and extravagant, and the wine pairing should also balance elegance with personality.