2006 Lieser Niederberg Helden Trockenbeerenauslese

Thomas Haag’s 2006 Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese nips the nose with horseradish, fruit distillate, and brown spice pungency of botrytis. With a butterscotch, praline, and nutmeg overlay to the super-concentrated essence of peach nectar, quince preserves, and honey on its viscous palate, this is slightly reminiscent of a great Loire Quarts de Chaume. Refreshing notes of green tea and lime weave their way throughout, and in the finish it becomes quite evident that there is enough juicy citricity to fuel a finish of enormous liveliness, providing a sort of launching pad that lifts the rich concentration of fruit and botrytis into orbit. Sheer density and acidity serve to keep the wine’s huge residual sugar at bay. I can imagine this being truly stunning at anywhere from 20-50 years of age. 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