Wilhelm told a great story about the evening when California importer Rudi Wiest
pulled into his driveway with a handsome snootfull and two carloads of Polizei in pursuit…
first thing whispers to Rudi (originally from Swabia) ‘you dont speak German’ and takes charge
Haag assures the authorities that he would make sure his American guest understood the gravity of his misbehaviour,
and would never abuse the nation’s hospitality in such a fashion ever again;
managed to talk them out of following up, so definitely on good terms with the constabulary
First of all, many, many thanks for the many kind words from you ALL. It’s really a great loss, not just for me but for anyone who loves wine in general, Riesling in particular and even more to those who have actually met Wilhelm and can attest to the warm and kind spirit that he has always been.
David K, although I haven’t actually thought about it on any of my visits, because I’m always spitting unless it’s just a social visit, I laughed out loud at your quote: “spit it backwards!”. So typical Wilhelm…
And Kevin and Mark, just like you have witnessed, the generosity and kindness is so overwhelming. No nonsense. Just straight from the heart. I’m happy for you that you got to experience this incredible personality first hand.
Also laughed at your example, James. I can picture the situation and how Wilhelm handled it.
If I could make a wish, for anyone reading this, who happen to have met Wilhelm, please share your stories here and if you don’t mind, I will gather them and forward them to the Haag family.
I met Wilhelm Haag twice, the second time at his estate where we spent the day tasting through his amazing wines, but it was the first time I met him that was memorable (for some strange reasons).
I opened a Fine wine Shop in Orlando Florida in 1986, and we were direct importing quite a bit of small importer’s products that hadn’t been in the state at the time (Kermit Lynch, Neal Rosenthal, Alain Jungenet etc), but we were super excited to bring into Florida the wines of Rudi Wiest. Now at the time, Rudi represented the Fritz Haag wines, and was bringing Wilhelm to the States for a whirlwind tour. It was winter at the time, so Rudi thought it would be cool to bring Wilhelm to Florida and we would do a mini German wine festival at the store. At the time, Haag still had a good amount of his monumental 1983s, so we bought big. The festival was a great success and Wilhelm was signing bottles for hours for people.
After the festival was over (it was still quite early), we all got invited to a good customer’s house for a big party. We brought all the leftover wines open from the Festival, and this was a glorious mansion where the party was, indoor pool off the kitchen etc - just a beautiful place. And Wilhelm was really digging it. Until suddenly a naked woman walks by. Then the owner of the house walks by, completely naked. It turns out, they were “swingers” as they later explained. Next thing you know, half the place was naked. I am kind of a prude myself, so was trying to ignore it all, but Wilhelm and Rudi were just blown away but it all.
We ended up leaving before things got a little more kinky, but I couldn’t stop laughing for days after, and remember this was Wilhelm’s introduction to the American household. Rudi had to explain to him that this wasn’t quite the ordinary household. But can you imagine Wilhelm’s first thoughts? Now this is what I call a free country. RIP Wilhelm, you always made some of my all time favorite Rieslings…
What a lovely tribute and what lovely memories. Thank you for writing that and sharing it.
I’m not sure what it is, maybe covid and this wacky 2020, but for a relatively young person, I’ve been thinking a lot about mortality in recent months.
Your post is a bright shining reminder of life and love, and is very uplifting, as hard as it must have been to write.
