The dry Fritz Haag “village wine” – i.e. 2011 Brauneberger Riesling trocken – is still officially, I now see (in very fine print), a Kabinett. But having already pulled the plug on that descriptor for this wine – which, in the present instance, carries 12% alcohol – I’ll stick with the tendency (and VDP preference) not to indicate Pradikat for dry wines. A faint yeasty veil lies over scents of peanut, fresh apple, and lime rind. This is tart as well as juicy – the apple being joined by honeydew melon – with an underlying sense of stone-licking. While lacking the sense of high ripeness typical for its vintage, it’s attractive in a metaphorically cool, laid-back manner and finishes with mouthwatering, lip-smacking length. I would plan to enjoy this over the next 2-3 years. “We started picking at the beginning of October,” relates Oliver Haag “because must weights were already high for Kabinett, but there was good acidity.” Haag pressed whole clusters rather than either crushing or permitting skin contact for his dry wines, and tended to favor a higher percentage of stainless steel for vinification and elevage because, as he puts it, “the material was all so ripe that I was worried it would come off as too opulent and voluminous.” Without question, he thereby puts his finger on a legitimate concern, and his own wines illustrate the truth that higher alcoholic volume and opulence – no matter what appears on the Riesling’s label – aren’t necessarily virtues, and in particular not in the context of this vintage. “To convey a sense of levity this year,” notes Haag, “was not so easy. Not that there was much botrytis out there,” he adds, though fortunately that fact did not deter him from rendering several spectacular ennobled wines in small volumes.Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463
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