"Of course it’s you (the winegrowers) and your predecessors, whose line you are carrying on as you said so admirably– and obviously very very effectively – who are responsible for these quite staggering liquids. Wine is hardly enough of a word to describe them. We’re all deeply, deeply indebted to you, to the VDP for being the catalyst for this staggering event. I can’t imagine any of us will ever have spent a morning more profitably or more pleasurably."

"Already while tasting these wines I always think of the stone gardens of a Zen temple. Maybe because all of these wines have a stony minerality - and a stone garden is of course made of stone. A stone garden as in the abstract form is suggesting the energy of nature not directly but in very purified form. So I feel that kind of sense with all of these wines, there is tremendous energy in it, but it’s not the direct energy but a rather distant one. And this distance is very beautiful, suggesting many things. It’s more like a suggestion rather than an expression - so I need to think. And these wines make me think a lot. And while thinking I see all these beautiful colors. So no other wine can give me this kind of spiritual joy. So I’m very impressed by these wines."

"It’s a great moment in my life of a taster to drink these marvelous wines from Riesling. Riesling has the ability to express with an incredible purity and precision every difference of terroir and of vintage. And all these wines were the proof that once again this is an incredible varietal. I was deeply also moved by the quality of some of the oldest wines. You know even in my best dreams I would never imagine that I would have drunk one day the 21 Steinberger. Well it was up to any expectations, of course, as most of the wines we had."

“Riesling is a very extraordinary grape variety – that was proven today. That was proven today for more than a century. It has been proven for dry, naturally sweet and lusciously sweet Rieslings. That was a promotional event for Riesling. Thank you.”

“Sincere thanks to all the producers for an unforgettable tasting. As one who writes about wine, I really must stand in humble awe in the presence of such complexity. The wines continue to offer the same pleasure as young Rieslings. And it is this combination of the complexity of age with youthful freshness and juiciness, primary fruitiness...this is something that Riesling and only Riesling can achieve. Thank you very  much.”

"When I had the idea of this tasting, I also had the temptation to taste German Riesling from different centuries. But quite soon I realized that already a tasting of just one century, collecting or selecting cru and vintages and producers would become difficult. But it was worth the effort. Such a tasting is undoubtedly the confirmation that Riesling is the greatest white wine of the world, young or old, incomparable to other white varieties."

"I thank Gian Luca Mazzella for the idea of the tasting and of course all the growers for their generosity for supplying these great great wines. For me it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and also to see the beauty and the majesty of Riesling which is certainly my favorite white grape varietal."