2022 Riesling Lieserer Niederberg Helden Auslese

Thomas Haag joined the Schloss Lieser estate – adjoining the imposing Schloss Lieser to which it once belonged in 1992 as director. At the time, there were just six hectares of vineyards, and the estate was in dire straits – just like the once glorious Schloss, which hosted Prussian royalty in its heyday, it had seen better days. It re-opened in 2019 as a luxury hotel. “We arrived here when we were incredibly young and when everything here was really run down. There was not a bottle of wine in the cellar, there were no clients, no money,” Thomas Haag remembers – but he and his family were there to transform it. Five years later, in 1997, he and his wife Ute (née Bergweiler) were able to buy the estate. Since then, they have not only painstakingly renovated the building and extended the vineyard holdings but made a name for themselves that ranks among the best in the Mosel and Germany. This is little wonder since Thomas and his brother Oliver (who now runs the parental estate Fritz Haag in Brauneberg) had quality winemaking in their blood. Both brothers are regularly showered with accolades. A kind of luminous brilliance is the hallmark of the Schloss Lieser wines. They receive no skin contact and are fermented spontaneously in stainless steel only. The result is a clear-cut, bright, pristine style that treads lightly to portray each site with much precision. Haag noted that there are at least four passes through each vineyard. “The right timing in the right parcel is key,” noted Haag. “I try and connect depth, complexity, ripeness and layeredness with brilliance and precision. Precision is a very important attribute. Uniting these elements in the vineyard and cellar is my endeavor. To achieve brilliance, I work with brutal restraint, very gently and very reductively.” He also explained that the steps between the different Prädikate are not huge leaps but subtle gradations in intensity. The site portfolio today spans 27 hectares across 220 parcels in top sites like Lieserer Niederberger Helden, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen and Brauneberger Juffer; 96% of plantings are Riesling, Weissburgunder makes up the rest. Only estate fruit is used. Ute and Thomas Haag are joined by their children Lara, who looks after sales, marketing and distribution, while son Niklas has joined Thomas in the vineyard and cellar. At the time of my visit in late July 2023, I tasted the 2022 range of Rieslings, which at this estate included Auslesen, but Thomas Haag was not ready to show barrel samples of the 2022 GGs, neither were the wines shown at the Wiesbaden VDP Vorprobe in August 2023. The auction wines appeared my Pre-Auction Report.