2015 Brauneberger Juffer Trocken GG
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Tasting notes
Apple skin and grapefruit peel, along with their corresponding piquant seeds, and hints of walnut make for a pithy, chewy palate impression rendered slightly austere by its firm feel and underlying stoniness, despite the enhanced glycerol born of 12.5 percent alcohol. It’s not hard to perceive why the Haags left this on its fine lees and didn’t bottle until August. Impressively persistent but rather dour, the finish is certainly of a piece with the entire performance and admirably transparent to stony nuances. “I’m always a bit anxious not to overdo ripeness” in dry wines, noted Oliver Haag, “but I didn’t feel compelled to pick this until nearly the middle of November.” The fruit received six hours of pre-fermentative skin contact, and one-third of the wine was fermented and raised in barrel.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Mosel Fine Wines
More reviews and scores
A little exotic fruit lightens the load of an almost piercing fragrance of crushed, green vegetation. There is no doubt that Haag’s Juffer is laden with minerality: rocky, gravelly and with a touch of quinine bitterness. Add the serious impact of spontaneous fermentation with its crunchy green-pepper notes and you have one of the most uncompromisingly dry Grosse Gewächse on the block, between a rock and a hard place. (MS)
This is a sleek and elegant wine with a lot of floral, fresh herbs character, and a hint of vanilla (not from oak!) that makes it enticing. The power is underplayed and the wine remains cool and delicate right through to the long clean finish. Sep 2016, www.jamessuckling.com
This proves utterly captivating as smoky scents of baked pineapple, almond and candied citrus, all infused in residual notes from spontaneous fermentation, emerge from the glass. These lead to a refined and playful feel on the palate. While there is quite some structure and grip coming through, the overall balance remains gorgeously refined. The superbly long finish proves firmly dry, spicy and utterly pure. This is easily the most complete dry Riesling we have tasted from the Fritz Haag Estate so far: What an utterly great dry Riesling in the making! Oct 2016, www.moselfinewines.com, Drink: 2018-2030