2006 Lieser Niederberg Helden Aulsese Lange Goldkapsel

Smoky, black tea and pungently spicy intimations of botrytis rise from the glass of 2006 Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Auslese Long Gold Gold Capsule. Honey, malt, and plum and peach paste pool on the palate, leaving a glossy, creamy impression that follows almost indelibly in the finish, where a refreshing lick of salt and real lift defy the wine’s sense of palate density. The sheer store of fruit and botrytis concentrate and of efficacious, ripe acidity is awesome, even though this misses the rarified and delicate qualities of the corresponding Juffer-Sonnenuhr. Again, this is a wine to revisit in 10 years at the earliest, and that should last 30-40. Both of Wilhelm Haag’s sons were away during the period of my annual Mosel cellar trawls, so he and I had the pleasure of tasting through Thomas Haag’s collection together, and it was clear that Haag senior was no less impressed than I by the extraordinary quality on exhibit. For the most part, Thomas Haag’s wines are unabashedly sweet, often marked by youthful fermentative aromas (including the occasionally off-putting sulfurous note), and possessed of a delicacy that will mark them in most wine lovers’ imaginations as wines requiring cellaring as well as drinking for their own sake rather than their culinary compatibility. In these respects, they most closely represent the iconic Riesling of Joh. Jos. Prum. All of this said, practically the only dry wine that Thomas Haag bottles, his generic Riesling, has been a hit from his very first (1992) vintage, which I fondly recall having written up as “a high point for ‘simple estate Riesling’ ... and for dry Mosel.” RieslingImporter: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. (800) 596-9463