I haven't followed German vintages closely...

What are the general characteristics of 2007 vintage? Extra ripeness? Cooler season? Low or high yields?

I'd also be interested in impressions of 2008 and what folks have heard about 2009 as well.

2007 was THE GREATEST VINTAGE EVER!

It is a probably the 4th or 5th or 6th greatest vintage of the 2000´s depending on what you´re looking for. A reasonably ripe vintage (not quite like 2003, 2006, or 2005) that produced good wines across the board over many different regions and prädikats (but showing a bit better in the kabinett-spätlese range.) The only real criticism is a slight deficiency in acid though overall, the wines are well-balanced and should age well. Especially successful in the Pfalz, Nahe, Mosel and Franken.

Bill nails it. Fairly ripe, slightly low acid so the wines lean to more roundness/softness than I liked in a lot of cases, but pretty consistent with a lot of approachable wines.

Keith; '08 is a lot leaner, not quite as ripe with really bright acidity and mainly Kabinett/Spatlese (quite a few producers didn't bottle any Auslese). The dry wines are also really nice and on the lighter/racier side with less alcohol than previous years.

Liked '09 from what I have tasted so far. The wines have ripeness, but in a lot of cases I found good acidity with the best wines I tasted (from the likes of Donnhoff, Kruger-Rumpf, Meulenhof, Selbach and Schafer-Frohlich) having serious energy and lift. Lots of really good Spatlese, and the handful of Auslesen I tasted were very clean without much botrytis. The wines have already done some serious damage to my credit card. David B's posted a lot of notes from the Theise/Skurnik DI tasting recently if you want notes on specific wines/producers.

[David M. Bueker]

My personal palate biased impressions:

2007: Ripe with very slightly deficient acids. Time will likely render these as extraordinarily drinkable wines

2008: Dare I say classic? The closest we have come to a vintage like 1998 in well, 10 years. Bright, with sufficient ripeness.

2009: Split the difference. I have heard tales of yet another vintage of the century, but my 120 or so samples tasted last month tell me excellent year, but not the absolute tip top echelon. It really is 2007 ripeness with acids half way between 2007 and 2008. If it had ended up with 2008 acids then we would have another 2001 on our hands.

Thanks Bill, Salil, and David for your replies. I ordered some 2007s from a shop in NYC so wanted to know if I should look for more and also am glad to get the info on the more recent vintages. I'm looking forward to a fall shipment (when weather cools) with some half bottles from Donnhoff and J.J. Prum as well as a standard-size bottle of Maximin Grunhauser Herrenberg Kabinett.

Explodes on the nose and palate, then peters out into a nothing finish.

By contrast, Spain vintage 2010 is elegant, nuanced, complex, well-structured, harmonious and consistently beautiful.

For what it's worth, Jean Fisch and David Rayer just emailed out the latest issue of their Mosel Fine Wines report (a free pdf publication) covering the '09 vintage. The previous issue in April had a really nice one-page summary of other vintages from this decade.