This day we had an appointment at Theo Haart, who could not be present himself. So the tasting was held by one of his sons. We mostly tasted through the 2005-vintage with a few other wines to compare.
Piesporter riesling 2005, 12,0% alc, ca 13 g/L. residual sugar
Light straw colour. Fine nose of blackcurrant-leafs. Fullbodied and quite soft style. The slight sweetness gives a round feeling to the almost dry wine. Fruit showing a little less than on the nose. Typical and easy-going wine.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling trocken 2004
Straw colour. Nose shows blackcurrant-leafs and hints of petrol, some evolvement here. Medium bodied in the mouth. Again, soft style, a little tarter acids here, a little better structure, but lacking a little the concentration of the 2005. Good length.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling 1er cru 2005, 12,5%, AP:2 06
Straw colour. More intensity in the nose; blackcurrant-leafs, slate, more mineral. Fullbodied in the mouth, again quite round style with good concentration of a finer fruit with more depth, some minerals showing. Fine.
Haart to Heart riesling 2004, 10,0% alc., AP:3 05
Straw colour. Fruitier, more aromatic nose, but also simpler. Hints of blackcurrant-leafs, apricot. Light riesling in the mouth, quite aromatic wine with fine balance between sweetness and acids. Medium concentration. Lacking depth, but you don't pay for it either.
Haart to Heart riesling 2005, 11,5%, AP:3 06
Straw colour. Not giving so much on the nose. More reductive. Showing some mineral. Round style in the mouth. Better concentration than the 04 and a little more serious style. Round, but fine structure. Good, better than 04.
Piesporter Kreuzwingert riesling spätlese feinherb 2005, 12,5%, AP:6 06
Straw colour. Nose shows a fruity style. Hints of apricot, some blackcurrant-leafs. Fullbodied in the mouth and quite dry feinherb in style. Fine fruit, showing more blackcurrant and minerals in the mouth. Fine structure and good length. Very fine.
Piesporter riesling kabinett 2005, 9,5% alc., AP:4 06
Light straw colour. Lightly fruity style. Hints of blackcurrant-leafs, fine aromas, typical. Easy-going kabinett, with some sweetness. Fine acids and length.
Piesporter riesling spätlese 2005, 8,5%, AP:5 06
Straw colour. More intensity in the nose. A little more leafy. More powerful and a little sweeter in the mouth. Better structure. Good wine, but still lacking a little depth.
Piesporter Domherr riesling spätlese 2005, 8,0% alc, AP:7 06
Straw colour, some spritz. Sleaker style here. More subdued and mienral nose. Hints of slate, some blackcurrant-leafs. Fullbodied and intence spätlese in the mouth. Better depth. Fine minerality. Good structure and length. Very fine wine.
Piesporter Grafenberg riesling spätlese 2005, 8,0% alc., AP:8 06
Straw colour. A bit more earthy nose here. Slight spice and blackcurrant-leafs. Fullbodied and rich style in the mouth. Sweeter and creamier. Still good structure. Fine, but I preferred the Domherr.
Wintricher Ohligsberg riesling 1er cru spätlese 2005, 8,0% alc., AP:11 06
Straw colour. More flowers in the nose and hints of slate. Just a touch blackcurrant. Fullbodied in the mouth, again sweet and quite creamy, although less than the Grafenberg. Showing a little more minerality. Fine structure and length. Very fine.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling 1er cru spätlese 2005, 8,0%., AP:10 06
Straw colour. The intence nose shows lots of blackcurrant-leafs and red fruits. Hints of minerals. Fullbodied in the mouth. Concentrated, very intence fruit. A bit creamy, but structured and high acids. Long taste. Very fine showing and the wine of the day for me.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling 1er cru auslese 2005, 8,0%., AP:12 06
Straw colour. More complex nose showing some more citrus-notes and more mineral, besides the blackcurrant-leafs and red fruits. A bit sweeter and creamier than the spätlese in the mouth, but not much more concentration. Fatter and perhaps not as good structure. But fine fruit.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling auslese goldkapsel 2005, 7,5%., AP:13 06
100% botrytised fruit. Yellow colour. Hints of blackcurrant-leafs, minerals, clean fine botrytis. Sweet and creamy in the mouth. Fullbodied and rich fruit, although not the heaviest auslese GK. Fine botrytis, very well integrated. Structured and high acids. Good length. Great wine.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling auslese lange goldkapsel 2005, 7,0%., AP:14 06
Yellow colour. Sweeter nose showing more honey and botrytis. Fullbodied auslese, some fat in the entrance, creamy. Concentrated and intence fruit. Very fin botrytis, integrates well. A little too heavy style right now. Softer structure. Needs time to loose some of the fat. Great wine.
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen riesling spätlese 1996, 8,0%., AP:4 97
Deep yellow colour. Complex and evolved nose. Fine, intence, showing petrol, leafs, red fruits, mineral. Medium bodied in the mouth. Fruit starting to come around. Still a little young. Typical Goldtröpfchen. The acids in the finish here are green. Balancing the sweetness and making it a quite tart and acidic Goldtröpfchen. This is not for the faint of heart. But I like it. Probably good food-wine.
All in all I think the tasting at Reinhold Haart this time had it's ups and downs. The wines are richer in style than normal, perhaps a bit too much for me. But they do have very good structure and they may age very well. The Goldtröpfchen spätlese is very good this year. One to lay down.
This evening again we were invited to the home of Phillip Veser for dinner. But this evening we were joined by several others including Jean Fisch. Of course there were lots of wines. I took a few notes only:
Iphöfer Julius-Echter-Berg silvaner spätlese trocken -S.- 2000, Hans Wirsching
Guess who brought this. As I just have tasted the 2001-vintage of this, it was very nice to compare. This had less structure of course, but it was a great bottle. Yellow colour. Fine nose, typical vagetal silvaner with hints of herbs, minerals. Also some sweetness in the nose with hints of sweet bread. A little complex and some evolvement. In the mouth this is fullbodied and concentrated silvaner and typical for the grape. Fine fruit with a little development. Balance is good, acids fine and length is good. A very fine food-wine that is drinkable now, but I would wait another 2-3 years to gain more complexity.
Grüner veltliner Berglage Loiben smaragd 2005, Johann Donabaum
An unknown producer to me. The wine had a light straw colour. Lightly aromatic and spicy grüner veltliner in the nose. Some hints of apricot and flowers. Medium concentrated in the mouth. Quite spicy fruit, typical, but lacking some depth. Lightly bitterness in the finish. Alcohol fairly high in the balance. Medium acids. A decent wine, but nothing worth remembering.
Grüner veltliner Kellerberg eiswein 1979, Freie Weingärtner Wachau
This was brought by me. It had a deep yellow colour. The complex nose shows the typical hints of dark toasted bread that I find typical of aged grüner veltliner, but there is much fruit-notes here and also hints of spice. In the mouth this wine is off-dry with good concentration of quite crisp fruit, together with the more evolved notes. A bit rustic in style. The refreshing acids and low alcohol gives the wine a fine balance and good length. Great wine that has evolved very well and will last. Why not make more of these smaller eisweins? This wine has 11,0% alcohol and 26,7 g/L residual.
Burg Wildecker Müller-thurgau auslese 1965, Staatliche Lehr- und versuchsanstalt für wein- und Obstbau Weinsberg
This was opened by Phillip, perhaps as a joke mostly. But the bottle had top fill and the wine was in good shape. Brown colour. Nose shows hints of burnt caramel, faint hints of nuts and flowers, but quite one-dimensional. Sweet wine in the mouth, again with the caramel-notes. Good concentration and still very much alive. But fruit really does not give much other impressions. The acids in the finish here are quite hard and not ripe. Giving an impression of a rather rustic wine. Fun to taste and a highly drinkable wine
Jean also brought a very nice Chambolle-Musigny aux Beaux Bruns 2004 from Ghislaine Barthod that was very fine. Pure and typical Chambolle. Also there was an older bottle of S.A.Prüm that was very nice. But as my palate started to get tired I stopped taking notes.