This February I dedicated myself to the Mosel. A complete revelation that left me smitten. I now consider these wines amongst my very favorites. I mean: drinkable, pleasurable, moreish, yet refined, elegant, and complex. The fact that they are the best values in fine wine is just incredible. Reading the Therry Theise portfolio along my journey was such a pleasure. I highly recommend this to anyone that doesn’t like Riesling or ‘fruity-wines’ - I was never completely enamored with the varietal before and was suspicious of the sweeter style. I couldn’t have been more wrong and all my preconceptions have been shattered. Thanks to everyone that has contributed to any Mosel thread in the past, as I have vicariously read most of them, and absorbed all your knowledge with my Berserker hunger!
2016 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (23/02/2021)
Minerally and fresh, notes of citrus and fresh mint, with a great core of grapefruit on the palate. Quite forward and juicy, this is very approachable and charming.
2016 Schloss Lieser Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (23/02/2021)
Very moreish and delicious. White orchard fruit and ripe pear are wrapped in honey with an overtone of sponti coming through on the nose. Not the best complex but simply irresistible with its honey-scented fruits.
2016 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Spätlese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (23/02/2021)
The initial reductive struck match fades after a while giving way to white peach and passion fruit. Very high deliciousness factor - primary yet so moreish, with brown sugar and lemon sprinkled on the beautiful core of fruit.
2018 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (23/02/2021)
Incredibly elegant and complex. It’s fresh and edgy and defies the warm vintage completely. The nose carries minerals, lime zest, and spices such as cardamom and coriander. Highly structured and built to age, this is both intellectual and a crowd-pleaser. I see this developing quite a bit in the cellar. Great wine.
2016 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese #5 - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (23/02/2021)
Richer nose than its Kabinett counterpart. A wave of struck match, honey, Cantaloupe melon, raw sugar, minerals, ripe peaches, red apples, and verging on the tropical at the tail end with bananas and passion fruit. In the mouth, the wine is round and has a great, juicy, core of fruit, but also structure, minerality, and acidity to keep it together. Already approachable thanks to the charming 2016 vintage, this can definitely benefit from further aging and gain more complexity, but it’s hard to keep the hands off it now.
2016 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (23/01/2021)
I finally get to taste J.J. Prum after reading so much about this producer. Poured with Coravin through the aerator which supposedly corresponds to about 1 hr in the decanter. Right off the bat, the wine is extremely pleasurable and delicious. Tropical fruits, yellow orchard fruits, great concentration, textural, huge amounts of dry extract, yet still in balance, with perfectly integrated residual sugar. Perhaps not the most complex wine at this point in time, but utterly irresistible, a wine that just draws you in. I wonder how a fully mature Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese tastes - the price is quite above this bottle, in the double category, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled, and hopefully, I can taste that one too.
2013 Joh. Jos. Prüm Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Auslese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (15/02/2021)
Terrific depth and length, this is not a wine you can sip without taking notice. A beguiling nose of honey, beeswax, tropical fruits, canteloupe, white flowers, peach, pineapple, topped by some leesy notes. The palate is incredibly fresh and airy; balanced; concentrated and effortless, it stretches long intermingling fresh strawberries, ripe orchard fruits, and flowers before ending with brown sugar apples and squeezed lemons. Apparently, the name derives from a Spa (Badstube) on the Mosel river - names checks out.
2017 Julian Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (15/02/2021)
Fresh slate-y mineral, wet pebbles, lemon, lemon zest, white flowers, precise, pure, stoney. A great core of white grapefruit, minerality, citrus, long lip-smacking finish. This is a very racy and pure Kabinett that will develop nicely with a few more years in the bottle, as the 2017 vintage shows through with its high-acidity - one for the acid freaks!
Posted from CellarTracker
WOTM (wine of the month): 2013 JJ Prum Bernkasteler Badstube Auslese