2015 Riesling

Oliver Haag considered the health and ripeness of his 2015 raw materials optimal for both dry and residually sweet bottlings, although the share of botrytis was relatively small. The result is a collection remarkable even by the august standards of this estate. Haag pointed out that although he usually has a pretty good idea which parcels are likely to serve best for a given style of wine, picking dates in 2015 varied enormously even between two or more fuders eventually blended together. “There were some lots picked late whose contents didn’t differ much in must weight from those picked at the very beginning,” he related, “although there was more aroma later and riper fruit flavors.” The consequent layering, reflecting pickings over a six-week period, no doubt contributes to the complexity of certain wines. As we tasted and compared this year’s remarkable pair of Spätlesen – Juffer-Sonnenuhr A.P. #7 and Juffer – Haag expressed his attitude toward the options growers now have to further specify wines’ vineyards of origins. “When you taste these two,” he observed, “you realize what led to the Brauneberg being divided into precisely these two Einzellagen. Any further subdivision would be purely for the sake of marketing.” And apropos of the difference between Juffer and Juffer-Sonnenuhr, the rare opportunity this year to compare TBAs from both sites revealed two wines that differ strikingly from one another in ways quite recognizably analogous to the two Spätlesen. If somebody attempts to convince you that sheer ripeness and botrytis trump terroir at that exalted level – and there are Riesling growers who will try to tell you this – the mildest possible response would be “not necessarily,” though I’m more tempted to reply “bullshit!” (I missed out on two Haag 2015s. The Juffer-Sonnenuhr Auslese A.P. #10 had disappeared from the cellars without a tasteable trace, and the Juffer-Sonnenuhr B.A. had just been filtered and bottled when I visited and was consequently not amenable to inspection. For further observations concerning this prestigious estate and its recent evolution, consult the introduction to my report on its 2014s.)