About the Wine Guide

• incorruptible
• indipendent
• strict standards
• professional

These are the criteria that have determined the Wein-Plus wine guide since the beginning, and they still apply today. By now, more than 221.838 users have registered with the platform, making Wein-Plus one of the most widely read wine media in Europe.

In contrast to all other wine guides, we do not stop working at the country’s borders. Wein-Plus is the first and so far the only professional wine guide that tastes wines from all regions in Europe, applying the same tasting and quality standards to all the wines. This means that you, the reader of the wine guide, are able to compare wines with each other.

The Wein-Plus wine guide currently lists more than 1.452 classified wine producers, showing professional descriptions and ratings of 134.873 wines. It is updated virtually on a daily basis, and is based on the strict tasting guidelines as well as the consequent use of the opportunities afforded by the 100-point rating scale. The strict and differentiated ratings make the Wein-Plus wine guide one of the most relevant wine guides available. Many wine friends, merchants, restaurant owners and journalists are guided in their own selection of wines by our professional tasters, and value the neutrality and topicality, which is not offered by any other wine guide in this form.

• More information on the Rating System.
• Why merchants and wine producers should submit Tasting Samples.
• How you as a merchant can achieve more sales using the entry as a Source of Supply.

As a member of Wein-Plus you have unrestricted access at all times to all the wine descriptions and ratings. Non-members can only view the complete wine ratings if the wine producer concerned is itself a member of Wein-Plus. By tying this service to membership, we are able to keep our pages very largely free of advertising, and in this manner to retain the greatest degree of independence possible. This is the only way we know to live up to our promise of providing an incorruptible, independent, strict and professional wine guide.

BECOME A MEMBER OF WEIN-PLUS

• The Wein-Plus wine guide is always absolutely up to date, as you can read comments on wines tasted online as early as the next day. The Internet provides you with constant access to the current tasting notes, which are expanded virtually on a daily basis. This is a significant advantage when compared with printed wine guides, where many wines are already sold out by the time the book is published.
• The Wein-Plus wine guide is widely highly regarded by leading wine producers, who support the project by submitting their wines for tasting and assessment. This means for you, as the reader, that you can find notes on the generally recognized top wine producers in Europe in our guide, as well as wine producers that would be regarded as the second or third tier in other media, but which also regularly produce outstanding wines.

• As a matter of principle, each wine is tasted only in the neutral tasting room in Erlangen.In contrast to other wine guides, wines tasted at trade fairs or at the producer’s premises are an absolute taboo for Wein-Plus.
• Each wine is tasted blind, i.e. at the time of rating the wine, the taster does not know which wine from which producer he is assessing.
• As a matter of principle, wines are always tasted in corresponding series together with other similar wines, sorted in accordance with sensible criteria (alcohol, residual sugar).
• A significant portion of the wines is tasted at least twice. This allows us to include the effect of air on the wine, and to include this in our rating.
• Barrel samples are not eligible for tasting.
• Per working day (approx. eight hours), each taster will taste a maximum of only 50 wines. This means he has lots of time and consideration to devote to each individual wine.
• The recording of wines and their ratings is completely computer-based. A sophisticated system involving tasting sample numbers and control numbers practically prevents the likelihood of mistakes and entry errors occurring.
• Guests who would like to gain their own impression of tasting conditions are welcome to attend tastings at any time.

EXCEPTION: The only exception to the abovementioned rules is made in the case of older wines, often particularly valuable or rarities, which we frequently taste and drink at appropriate events, or on other occasions. In these cases it is not always possible to organize a blind tasting. Nevertheless, we would like to share tasting notes and ratings gained at such events with you. Even in this case we ensure that the conditions for a serious assessment are adhered to as far as possible. Please bear with us that we will only publish a few of such one-off wines that we come across in this guide. Even we prefer to drink exceptional wines, even more than to write about them.

• Our head taster and editor-in-chief Marcus Hofschuster has established an excellent reputation as a serious and incorruptible wine critic. His team, too, consists of experienced tasters with a sound education in wine. The ratings awarded by Wein-Plus are recognized as being reliable, consistent and reproducible.
• Counter-tastings are held regularly. In such a case the taster concerned will re-taste a wine he has already tasted a few days previously – of course without being aware of this. The description and rating are expected to be very close to the original assessment.
• All tasters are full-time tasters for the Wein-Plus wine guide.

How are wines tasted? Who are the people behind the wine guide, and what do they look like? In a 12-minute video you can find out more about our work, and about the route a wine takes from the producer right up to the entry in our wine guide. Enjoy!

Note: at the time we were still speaking of wine guides (plural), as we had a separate guide for each country. Today all the wines are listed in the single Wein-Plus Wine guide, and you can filter wines by country, growing region and many other criteria, in order to optimize the search in accordance with your own interests.