2016 Riesling Piesporter

Julian Haart escaped the ravages of peronospora in 2016 and consequently enjoyed what for his short history have counted as normal yields (which in Schubertslay means low by any other standard). He began picking in late September to insure that a portion of Schubertslay would deliver must weight in the low to mid-80s Oechsle to guarantee delicate Kabinett of the sort he favors. “If you had waited until the first week of October there, you would already have had 88 or 89 Oechsle,” he noted, not only because the site is warm but also because its vines (ancient – but so are those in Ohligsberg and Goldtröpfchen) bear pathetically little fruit. Haart is among the many to describe the 2016 harvest as “relaxed,” and he didn’t finish up until November 5 with (yes!) another Kabinett, namely that from his ancient vines in a cool, breezy portion of the Ohligsberg (where it turns toward the Geierslay, a.k.a. Neuberg), and then at just 79 (yes, seventy-nine) Oechsle. “We had almost no botrytis and harvested very little fruit over 90 Oechsle,” he reported – and bear in mind that 90 is the level at which many of his illustrious fellow Moselaner harvest their Kabinetts! Only in the present collection’s sole Auslese does botrytis play a role. “This year’s Spätlesen are certainly not in the least baroque, and the must weights were not much higher than for some of my Kabinett pickings,” reported Haart with what turns out to be extreme understatement, adding self-critically that “in my first years the Spätlesen are a little too fat for my taste.” Given his crop’s health and abundant acidity (scarcely lower than in 2015), Haart felt no hesitation in employing pre-fermentative maceration for his dry 2016s. “In fact,” he explained, “I was even tempted to extend it for a bit longer, since there was absolutely no pressure from an onslaught of incoming fruit like there had been in 2015.” Where not otherwise noted, the wines were bottled in May, immediately prior to which Haart reports their having displayed considerable post-fermentative “Mosel stink” – but when I tasted in late July 2017, that was an issue with only one wine.

Note that although most of the dry-tasting wines in Haart’s 2016 collection are legally speaking radically trocken, he chooses not to label them as such but instead relies solely on the convention that any wine not identified by a Prädikat will be dry-tasting. (For extensive further information on Julian Haart and his young estate, consult the introductions to my reports on his 2014s and 2015s. His recently announced expansion into Rheinhessen and his acquisition of a parcel in Wintrich destined for Pinot Noir – along with his simultaneous passing of the Schubertslay lease to Klaus Peter and Julia Keller – are detailed in my brief article “Homes Away from Home.”)