Riesling GG (Dry) Juffer Fritz Haag Mosel 2020

Description

Being French, Napoleon obviously knew his wine and described the Brauneberg as one of the ‘pearls of the Mosel region’. With a pedigree like this, it’s no surprise that the wines have a fantastic ability to age. The great Juffer vineyard in Brauneberg, one of the few designated as ‘grand cru’ by edict of Napoleon in 1804 has everything to do with it, of course.

It is in these fine slate soils that Wilhelm Haag made brilliant wines that brought his estate to prominence from the late 1950s. He was able to bring out the best of the terroir: filigree wines with fine floral fruit and elegant mineral tones that, in his words ‘should make the tastebuds stand to attention and cry out for more’. Crafting beautiful wines from the Juffer, and its heart, the Juffer-Sonnenuhr, where vines are clustered on a dauntingly steep and rocky slope around the sundial. While his older son Thomas bought the defunct Schloss Lieser, turning it into the Mosel’s great success story, his younger son Oliver took over the family estate in 2005. The estate has since grown a little, but the wines are as brilliant as ever, ranging from a basic dry wine to top GG (= Grosses Gewächs or Grand Cru), taking in Kabinetts and TBA along the way.

Initial whiffs of smoke and struck flint fade into pretty vineyard peach and blossom on the nose of this full-bodied, dry Riesling. On the palate you will taste tons of stonefruit, and apples, along with a subtle spice, all balanced by racy acidity and a backbone of cool steel.