2007 Riesling Lieserer Niederberg Helden Beerenauslese
$135 (2018)
Germany
Lieser
Mosel
Sweet White
Riesling (2018 vintage)
00
2007
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Thomas Haag has now harvested 15 vintages at this estate and, as I wrote last year, essentially put the village of Lieser singlehandedly back on the map. With choice morsels in the Juffer-Sonnenuhr site in Brauneberg that he inherited, he now has a doubly rich stock of vineyards from which to work and has for years made the best of both. Although I am still no great fan of his dry wines, once a bit of residual sugar comes into play there are few estates that do it better. As at the estates of so many of his colleagues in 2007, the kabinett and spatlese bottlings were at the core of this year's offering. On the other hand, the noble late-harvest wines were a touch irregular and often only marginally better. When they were right, though, they were spot on. (Rudi Wiest/Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA) Also recommended: 2007 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spatlese Trocken (87), 2007 Riesling Kabinett (86), 2007 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese Auction Wine (90), 2007 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule (91), 2007 Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Auslese (91), 2007 Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Auslese Long Gold Capsule (93). Other wines tasted: 2007 Riesling Trocken, 2007 Lieser Niederberger Helden Riesling Spatlese Trocken, 2007 Riesling Feinherb.
00
2018
2020 - 2070
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“Summer without end” was how Thomas Haag characterized the entire 2018 growing season. Like so many Moselaner, he began picking on September 17, but he didn’t finish until the end of October. That delay partly reflects how large and diverse his holdings have become, but more importantly, the sheer volume of fruit from 2018, together with Haag’s belief – shared by many fellow growers – that with stable grape analytics and continuously balmy weather forecasts, it could not hurt to take time for selection and to let certain parcels enjoy added hang-time. This year’s Grosse Gewächse were harvested mostly in week four, reported Haag, and the nobly sweet selections tended to have been harvested largely in the fourth and fifth weeks, free of botrytis until one gets to the level of Auslese Goldkapsel.
“Yes, the dry wines are this year drier than before,” confirmed Haag, which accords with the latest German fashion, and no doubt in part accounts for these wines’ rapturous reception among German critics. But he suggests that “you have almost a lightly sweet impression just because of sheer ripeness, and although the alcohol levels are relatively high, that alcohol is well-integrated and doesn’t show up as any heat.” Well, “doesn’t usually,” I would say. Apropos of degree of dryness, I have nothing in principle against Rieslings with scant or even absolutely no residual sugar (such as those rendered in recent years at von Buhl), but I am not convinced that this particular one-size-fits-all approach serves Thomas Haag’s Grosse Gewächse especially well, as they sometimes exhibit an austerity that, when combined with pronounced phenolic piquancy, borders on severity. Like many Mosel growers, Haag generally achieves his desired degree of dryness in legally trocken bottlings by introducing cultured yeasts to metabolize the last few grams of sugar. He seems to have dialed the current crop of Grosse Gewächse to between two and three grams of residual sugar, which left them at around 13% in alcohol. They were bottled in mid-July.
Those who have followed my reports on Schloss Lieser wines in some detail will realize that Thomas Haag continued to market a Kabinett trocken long after the VDP asked growers to eliminate that category (as well as Spätlese trocken), and that he is among many VDP members to have chafed under that organization’s rule that only a single dry wine each vintage, namely the corresponding Grosses Gewächs, may be labeled with the name of a top site. Haag has managed in recent years to get away with writing “Helden” as a stand-in for “Niederberg Helden” on what is in effect the second wine of his Grosses Gewächs from that site. Beginning with his 2018s, Haag has devised a new and clever way around the regulations using a play on the German word “Stück,” an abbreviation for “Stückfass” (a cask of roughly 1,000 liters), but also designating a play, a musical composition, or simply (literally) a piece of any sort or anything. The dry Kabinett is now “Kabinettstück,” the ostensibly lesser dry Riesling from Lieserer Niederberg Helden “Heldenstück,” and the corresponding wine from Piesporter Goldtröpfchen “Goldstück,” which also happens, literally, to mean “gold nugget.” As Thomas Haag is now a member of the VDP-Mosel’s board, I am not surprised that this has been deemed an acceptable approach, but it’s sort of daft that the Heldenstück and Goldstück bottlings are described (and fitted into the pyramidal hierarchy that is a recent German obsession) as “VDP Ortsweine,” since the Ortschaften in question – Lieser and Piesport – aren’t named on those wine’s respective labels other than via small-print mention in a descriptive text.
Regrettably, if predictably, I did not get a chance to taste either the Kabinett or the Grosses Gewächs from Haag’s small share of the famed Bernkasteler Doctor (for details about the marketing of wines from which, consult the introduction to my coverage of Schloss Lieser 2017s). Also missing from the lineup I tasted were the Graacher Himmelreich Grosses Gewächs and an inaugural Domprobst Grosses Gewächs that Haag had elected to delay unveiling. Still fermenting at the time of my visit were Trockenbeerenauslesen from the Juffer-Sonnenuhr and Niederberg Helden.
Readers should be aware that Thomas Haag’s are among those Mosel Rieslings most prone to exhibiting in their youth yeasty, cheesy, matchstick or otherwise distracting reductive fermentative byproducts. So an appearance of considerable qualitative disparity when you merely review my scores frequently comes down to whether a given wine was exhibiting such capricious and temporary aromatic distractions on the occasion when I tasted it. (For extensive further details about the history and methods of this estate and of the Thomas Haag–Philipp Veser team, consult especially the introductions to my coverage of their 2014s and 2016s. And for details concerning recent expansion, see the introductions to my coverage of the 2016s and 2017s.)
00
2013
2020 - 2040
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“I hope I don’t have to see another vintage like 2013 anytime soon,” said Thomas Haag at Schloss Lieser as we tasted a few older vintages this past November. Hail laid part of the vineyards to waste in the early summer of '13, followed by rain and botrytis at harvest. “It was a nightmare scenario,” he added. Not surprisingly, his selections were so rigorous that what little wine he had left after crush was sold out before bottling. What Haag managed in 2013 borders on the miraculous, for from his dry Grosses Gewächs to his ethereal Spätleses and sublime Ausleses, he arguably made the best Rieslings of the vintage in all of Germany. I rated 12 of the 16 wines I tasted at 90 points or higher, and two of them were the best Rieslings in their respective categories. Yes, under the Freiherrn von Schorlemer, Schloss Lieser was once a famous estate, but its star had long since waned. Almost single-handedly, and in less than 20 years, Thomas Haag has kissed it back to life. It is difficult to do online, but that alone deserves a round of applause. And his 2013s merit a standing ovation.
00
2011
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In certain vintages, often the warmer ones, the Helden site in Lieser can outperform the better-known Juffer-Sonnenuhr in Brauneberg:2009 was a case in point.Last year the latter had the upper hand.In 2011, the kudos again fall to Lieser, and no one has more vineyard potential in the village than this estate.In the fraternal duel between Thomas and Oliver Haag, this round goes to Thomas.Everything he bottled, from dry riesling to gold capsule auslese, was spot on. Also recommended:2011 Riesling Trocken (85), 2011 Riesling Kabinett Trocken (86), 2011 Riesling Spatlese Trocken (88), 2011 Riesling Feinherb (85), 2011 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett (87), 2011 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Auction Wine (92), 2011 Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule (89), 2011 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule (90), 2011 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Long Gold Capsule (91).
00
2006
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Since he took control of this estate in 1992, Thomas Haag has put the village of Lieser on the map. After purchasing the property in 1997, he inherited a portion of the Juffer-Sonnenuhr site in Brauneberg, which has essentially doubled the number of excellent wines produced here each year. Although his brother Oliver had the slight upper hand this year at Fritz Haag, I nonetheless gave marks over 90 points to eight of the Schloss Lieser wines, and four of them are among the finest of the vintage. Everything here is first-class. (Rudi Wiest) Also recommended: 2006 Riesling Kabinett (86), 2006 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett (87), 2006 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Gold Capsule (91), 2006 Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Long Gold Capsule (95). Other wines tasted: 2006 Riesling Trocken.
00
2002
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Thomas Haag's 2002 collection was relatively hard to taste in August on account of its primary yeastiness. I therefore welcomed the opportunity to return to several of the most promising wines in December. Although some of the wines were still not easy to assess, it is clear that there is lots of promise here and, at the upper limits of ripeness, clearly exceptional quality. (Rudi Wiest/Cellars International Inc. , Carlsbad, CA) Also recommended: 2002 Schloss Lieser Riesling.
00
2001
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Thomas Haagx000D has scarcely disappointed in any of his ten vintages at the revived Schlossx000D Lieser, but in 2001 he broke new qualitative ground. x000D "We had gorgeous fruit and absolutely perfect acidx000D structure," he proclaims, and I could not agree more.x000D Fans of Mosel riesling who pass over Schlossx000D Lieser because its vineyards are not famous will be doing themselves and thesex000D wines a grave disservice. (Rudi Wiest)Also recommended: 2001x000D Schloss Lieser Riesling Kabinett ($16), 2001 Lieserer Niederberg Heldenx000D Riesling Spatlese ($28), 2001 Lieserer Niederberg Helden Riesling Auslese x000D ($40).
00
1997
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Thomas Haag expressed satisfaction with the well-balanced, virtually botrytis-free ripeness of his '97 collection. He is now the sole proprietor of this estate, poised and well prepared to carve out a reputation for the long-neglected vineyards of Lieser. (Rudi Wiest)
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