2017 Riesling

Oliver Haag compares 2017 with 2015 for their combination of high acidity, high extract and high must weights with relatively little noble botrytis but what there was of it permitting glorious upper-Prädikat bottlings. I would take exception to none of that, but would add that for me the 2017s are like 2015s with a bit of the added elegance, charm, and Spiel (playfulness as well as flavor interplay) of 2016. Moreover, when it comes to nobly sweet elixirs, even from an estate famous for these, the Haags’ 2017 collection has proven remarkable, surpassing 2015 in sheer diversity and, to my taste, overall quality as well. “The best botrytis was there early,” observed Haag, who, like many growers in his sector of the Middle Mosel, began picking on September 25 and finished in the third week of October. His four highest-must lots – a pair each of BAs and TBAs – all barely managed to cross the threshold to legal vinosity, harboring only around 6% alcohol, and were bottled in mid-August 2018.

Yields were down in 2017 compared with 2015 or 2016, but not nearly as drastically as at so many Mosel estates. And the losses, Haag pointed out, were due less to frost – though that took a toll, especially in top locations where budding was further advanced – or to harvest selectivity such as so many other growers had to practice to avoid rot or hail taint, but rather to low juice yields from small, thick-skinned berries. “And the longer they hung,” he noted, “the less juice there was in them.” This phenomenon, he thinks, also goes a long way toward explaining the overall concentration, complexity and grip that pertains to his 2017s. And the two Grosse Gewächse were picked on the late side as well as enjoying some pre-fermentative skin contact. Between that pre-fermentative regimen and eventual precipitation of tartrates, the finished acidities in Haag’s dry 2017s ended up weighing in at an efficacious but far-from-excessive 8-8.5 grams. (For background on this prestigious estate and its recent evolution, consult especially the introduction to my report on its 2014s.)