On Tuesday, we launched the 19th edition of our German Wine Guide in Mainz. The Rheinland Pfalz Bank has made the past few events almost luxurious. Even if the book is worth but little, the food and wine was first class! I felt tipsy merely to have finished another year - and collapsed that evening shortly before midnight after a last glass of 2005 Triumvirat from Raumland with my publisher, Clemens Hahn. It would be a tough call for Master of Wine students not to think this was Champagne. I needn't tell much anyone who won what award in this year's guide. I shall leave that to others - and their commentary as well. What I notice is, on the one hand, a slow turn towards the natural elegance that makes great Burgundy something special and, on the other, the desire to make enough, let us say, estate grown Riesling in order to have some presence in international markets. Many of Germany's finest producers still make so little wine that the likelihood of finding them in Omaha, Bergen oder Chang Mai is next to nothing. As the world turns, though, German producers are moving in the right direction. Comments