Nice to hear from you, Andrew! There are some excellent Rheingau producers that I would not want to miss, especially Peter Jakob Kühn - one of my absolute favourites - and Künstler - also excellent. Having said that as a region I find the Pfalz much more exciting, and not just for Riesling. It has become one of my favourite wine regions, not only in Germany and not only for Riesling. How someone would turn a Pfalz Riesling down simply based on the origin is beyond me, but we all have our preferences. Rheinhessen might still sound like a cheap bulk wine region for some, probably the same people who assume that the Rheingau still has the same place it did a hundred years ago...
Anyway, I agree on the Loosen factor. In London it is very hard, almost impossible, to avoid him. As you say they are decent wines, some very good ones in fact, but I get bored by seeing the same name on every restaurant wine list as if Germany was only defined by Loosen (lower price range restaurant) or JJ Prüm (the inevitable Auslese in a fancy restaurant - having said that if it was not so very expensive I'd happily take a Prüm Auslese, thank you).
Even so I will have to seek out a single vineyard Leitz wine at some point to tick that box!
In reply to I can't get too excited about by Andrew Connor
Rheingau
Nice to hear from you, Andrew! There are some excellent Rheingau producers that I would not want to miss, especially Peter Jakob Kühn - one of my absolute favourites - and Künstler - also excellent. Having said that as a region I find the Pfalz much more exciting, and not just for Riesling. It has become one of my favourite wine regions, not only in Germany and not only for Riesling. How someone would turn a Pfalz Riesling down simply based on the origin is beyond me, but we all have our preferences. Rheinhessen might still sound like a cheap bulk wine region for some, probably the same people who assume that the Rheingau still has the same place it did a hundred years ago...
Anyway, I agree on the Loosen factor. In London it is very hard, almost impossible, to avoid him. As you say they are decent wines, some very good ones in fact, but I get bored by seeing the same name on every restaurant wine list as if Germany was only defined by Loosen (lower price range restaurant) or JJ Prüm (the inevitable Auslese in a fancy restaurant - having said that if it was not so very expensive I'd happily take a Prüm Auslese, thank you).
Even so I will have to seek out a single vineyard Leitz wine at some point to tick that box!