I’m just back from tasting nearly all of them again, in the company of a dozen colleagues who among other things kept me real. We tasted them almost without exception estate-by-estate – the best way to taste – and I was very curious how they’d be, having stuck my neck a long way out when I wrote my vintage report back in April.

To be responsible I have to caveat: one never truly knows the “stature” of a vintage until it starts to show its grown-up form. Thus any pronouncements made at earlier stages are indications of likelihood, nothing more. That said, we taste young vintages every year, so we’re comparing apples to apples.

After tasting some 320 wines again the past week, I’m, more certain than ever; when 2005 is at its best it is a career-making vintage. That means any of us who were involved with it – as vintners or merchants – will look back on it and know it was at or near the top of the mountain.

I can’t think of more than 3-4 wines which showed less well in June than in March; rather the opposite. I lost count of the numbers of mea culpas I issued to growers for having underrated their wines. I could easily offer another 2-3 dozen wines I “rejected” the first time.

Here’s a thumbnail update of many estates:

SELBACH-OSTER: After saying this was the greatest single vintage I’ve ever tasted at any one winery, I was nervous as a kitten how the wines would show. They were supernal. Better than I remembered them. It would be easy to add another 1-2  +++ wines to the mix.

MERKELBACH: I had a small concern the wines might be too soft after all. NOT! Though acids are certainly on the gentle side, the expression of fruit and terroir is nothing short of euphoric.

CHRISTOFFEL: I erred badly here. The wines are considerably better than they appeared, when I tasted them with two weeks in bottle. Now everyone tells you “They’re bottle-sick” or “They’re too young” and you don’t even hear the words any more….except sometimes they’re true. Both Kabinetts are stellar.  The whole bloody vintage is stellar.

ADAM: let’s put it this way: no one made better wines than these. They’ve consolidated their flavors and are now showing depth and authority such as one rarely sees. Short-list these; they’re among the highest echelon in this great vintage.

LOEWEN: Ditto! Everything has come alive. The collection is amazing.

KARLSMUEHLE: Here one has an opposite impression; the wines have seemed to slim down since March, and if they’re less extravagant they’re also more exquisite.

WEINGART: Florian had every right to slash my tires, I was so muddled about his vintage. Granted I saw them quite early (March 6th) but sheesh, what a collection!

KRUGER-RUMPF was nothing less than stellar, consistently, with lavish expressiveness and obdurate length.

WAGNER-STEMPEL: Many of the dry wines had found themselves, especially the Vom Porphyr I’d questioned in March. No more. I also underrated the Grosses Gewächs and the BA.

GYSLER: His Auslese seems to be almost a different wine entirely; less direct and more complex.

MULLER-CATOIR: Many improvements to an already remarkable group: The Scheu Auslese kicks all the cat-ass any Scheu ever kicked, and the Rieslaner BA and TBAs are perfect examples of their kind; clear, shapely and never palling even after many sips.

In all the best wines of 2005 – the lion’s share of which are found in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Nahe – offer a once-in-a-lifetime combination of fruit mass that isn’t heavy and which is saturated with minerality, along with a rapturous clarity and length despite their density. I am closer and closer to promising you, at the end of your drinking career, you will look back and say “2005 was the greatest vintage of my lifetime.” Ask me again in five years.

                                                      -Terry Theise