With quantities down and variability high (but very high highs), it’s tough to know what to pursue this time around. What are people buying, or planning to buy? Apologies if this has been discussed - I didn’t see a thread, but could easily have missed it.
For the pradikat wines, I bought all the producers I usually do. For Keller, I went heavy into abst. e BA/TBA, on the theory that perhaps its the last vintage of my lifetime that I may actually get to enjoy anywhere close to maturity (and it sounds like the vintage will lend itself wines with botrytis). I also bought all the keller auslese I could get my hands on (which wasn’t much). Same with Julian Haart, who made a bunch of auslese that appear to be made in miniscule quantities, but I got a bit of some of the auslese wines, and also got some spatlese. I bought a six pack of everything that Willi Schaefer made this year. Reinhold Haart’s spatlese/auslese goldtropchen, a speck of Lauer and Schloss Lieser, and lots of Von Schubert and Zilliken. I will buy Prum when it is released. I will likely bid aggressively at the auctions this year as well.
It seems to be a bigger botrytis and higher pradikat vintage for my limited understanding, which is fine by me. I love aged auslese, both clean and with some botrytis, and it’s also a wedding year, so I have interest in stocking up for the cellar, price increases notwithstanding. I myself have not gotten more than a handful of 2017 offerings, but in terms of blind purchases I am planning on Donhoff Hermannshohle, Schaefer Domprobst spatlese, and JJ Prum auslese.
From there I’ll probably taste before buying.
From all corners I am hearing the concentration is off the charts, but that the wines changed quite a lot in barrel and are still somewhat unruly. In other words- great potential, but also potential for things to go amiss in time here and there. TNs from MFW and Gilman tell some tales of greatness, but reading between the lines there are still some question marks.
Throw into the mix the very recent news that 2018 is now going to be the earliest harvest on record at some addresses- and now we may have yet another really amazing vintage in the pipeline.
For my part, I went huge on Schaefer and also bought Muller-Catoir for the first time in a long time. I plan to buy Spatlesen aggressively at the Mosel Auction as well.
Otherwise, I am taking a bit of a wait and see attitude. I would at least like to taste an early release entry level wine or two from the vintage before I make any other major commitments.
I will be buying all the Keller I can find. It’s my friend’s son’s birth year. So hopefully some special wines to set aside.
Same as usual. Got everything I wanted so far, lots of mags of Kabis, I’d rather a bit more Julian Haart but that is understandable. A couple of new ones for me. Rudolf May’s Silvaner and something else I can’t remember. Overall my bill was up quite a lot but that was driven by Keller sweet wines.
I’ll be there next month for the auctions.
Having tasted at a few addresses I found the ‘17 dry Rieslings to also be very strong. Dönnhoff, Schäfer-Fröhlich, Clemens Busch, Markus Molitor and MF Richter were notables. Willi Schaefer stood out for sweet wines, to no surprise. Those will likely be my focus, along with a few more like JJ Prüm.
And hopefully reporting back real time if you would be so kind to do it again! I think it could be a bit of a nail-biter.
Thanks all, very interesting.
We’re buying our usual Keller and Emrich-Schonleber GGs as much as we can get. Some GGs from Schafer Frohlich and Battenfeld Spanier as well, to a lesser extent. Anyone have specific comments on the SF GGs? If there is one standout, for instance? Will buy some Andreas Laible as well - doesn’t get much discussion on this board, but we love the wines. We’ll likely buy around the edges for kabinett and spatlese, as we simply don’t drink them very often. Sounds like Willi Schaefer is, unsurprisingly, a strong choice.
I like the vintage quite a bit. I am going to buy what I drink most dry, feinherb, and Kabinett. I am slowing down my buying of Auslese and above because I never seem to drink them and I have an enormous amount. I will buy some selectively.
One thing I would urge you to give a try is dry wines from the Mosel. After my last trip in June of this year I was extremely impressed. I think it is a combination of global warming and winemakers wanting to and learning over time how to make dry wines. Weiser-Künstler Kabinett Trocken, 2016s from Vollenweider blew me away, of course Julian Haart, AJ Adam, Ulli Stein, Immich-Batterieberg, Clemens Busch are some of the dry Mosel wines I am buying.
Thanks Robert. Let’s discuss more in person - Jonathan needs convincing to step outside the producers we already know and like for dry wines, and he traditionally dislikes dry wine from the Mosel. I hear the implied notion in your comment above that they didn’t used to be so good, which I would agree with, but trust your impressions.
I am buying some Feinherb wines as well. Also buying a bunch of Spätlese and a few Kabinett wines, though less than some years due to a large personal inventory. Had to buy Dönnhoff Hermannshöhle and Kirschheck Spätlese to keep 20 and 18 year verticals in tact, but both were delicious when I tasted them, so no hardship there.
Julien Haart and Schloss Lieser kabs for me. Didn’t get any Schubertslay from Julien Haart but that’s about expected I guess. Can anyone recommend a CA merchant for 2017s German? All of my orders are for the UK currently.
Has anyone seen the Julian Haart Auslese ***.
I’ve seen my invoice for it. 
I probably won’t seek them out, and instead am buying some more 2015s and 2016s, which in large part are still available. I am actually regretting not buying more 2016s when they came out; the vintage is really quite attractive, and is a perfect counterpoint to 2015. While I’m sure there will be good wines in 2017 the early assessments of style don’t sound super appealing to me. I haven’t tasted the wines, but the descriptions remind me of 2013 – which I wasn’t much a fan of. Would be happy to be wrong here, though.
I ended up doing a lot of backfilling on 2016- agreed, a lovely vintage. Those will keep me happy for a decade or so until the 2015s are ready, and even then I think the better 2016s have a good long life ahead.
All of the dry 15’s I’ve been drinking have been lovely and not yet shut down. The only one I’ve had that seemed to be asleep was the Keller Kirchspiel GG.
I had a 2013 Battenfeld Spanier Molsheim the other night that was delicious.
Has anyone tasted any of the auction wines?