Schloss Lieser - Goldtröpfchen GG 2021

You know how it is, the craving for Riesling strikes. That aside, it had been a surprisingly long time since we’d had anything from the Mosel in the glass. And since the Mosel means, if not exclusively then certainly for the most part, Riesling, that lets us kill two birds with one stone. Or one bottle, in this case. Today’s comes from Thomas Haag of the Schloss Lieser estate in, where else, Lieser. Anyone whose ears prick up at the name Haag is right to do so, because not far from Lieser, in Brauneberg, brother Oliver makes wine at the Fritz Haag estate, which we’ve had on the blog a few times before. Lieser, and with it Schloss Lieser, is incidentally part of this year’s stretch at Mythos Mosel again. So if you’d like to catch a glimpse of the castle yourself, this would be your chance. We ourselves have honestly given the stop a wide berth in recent years owing to the crowds. This year too, with guest estates Clemens Busch, Carl Loewen and Geltz-Zilliken, it’s likely to be quite lively. But even just walking past the front of the castle is worth it. An impressive building. The estate itself isn’t housed in the castle proper but in a building next door. Thomas Haag and his wife Ute founded the estate in the 90s. By now the next generation, Lara and Niklas, is already on board too.

Today’s wine doesn’t come from Lieser vineyards. It grows a little upstream in the Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, which nestles on the northern bank against one of the Mosel’s many bends and therefore always faces roughly south in some fashion. Just how strongly it faces south depends on where in the Goldtröpfchen you find yourself, since the site, at over 80 hectares, encloses quite an expanse. All I could turn up is that the parcel sits relatively high up the slope, close to the forest. The wine is spontaneously fermented and raised in stainless steel, where it rests on the full lees until bottling. We’re drinking the 2021 vintage, which, especially in recent years, was on the cooler side.

Right after opening, I’m second-guessing the decision to have pulled the cork. This smells demanding, austere, with lots of acidity and no harmony. But, as always around here, we have time. At the same time, also as always in a situation like this, I wonder what they’d do with it in a restaurant. Force-aerate it, presumably. Three hours in the open bottle later, at any rate, you’re pouring yourself a different wine. This is properly Riesling GG now. Some people would no doubt call demandingly austere “proper Riesling” too, but you get what I mean. There’s plenty of yellow stone fruit, there’s flint, that touch of reduction that brings the tension. On the palate, first a lot of pull, then a surprisingly generous helping of creaminess, which towards the back gives way to structure and citrus. Crazy how demanding this started out, and how magnificent the very same wine is on the very same evening now. There really is a lot of citrus, the kind that just won’t leave the tongue. With peel and the white pith between the segments of flesh. It’s lovely, but you mustn’t be acid-phobic. This really has some zing.

Happily, no heartburn sets in. What does turn up is more fruit on the second evening. Still the citrus fruit, but now with even more stone fruit, mirabelle, apricot, that sort of thing. A veritable fruit basket when you put your nose in the glass. The flint behind it remains. And on the palate, too, something’s afoot. The creaminess has vanished, the pull grown even more pulling. And there was already a good dose of it to begin with. The structure towards the back has melted away. Though I’m not entirely sure about that. Maybe structure and creaminess are still there, and you just haven’t the time to think about it for all the juiciness and pull. This is so radiant, so clear, so intense, this is why I keep having to crack open a Riesling after all. No other grape does it quite like this. Differently, sure. But like this, no, not like this.

Related Posts

• Heymann-Löwenstein - Uhlen Blaufüsser Lay 2020
• Carl Loewen - Maximin Herrenberg 2018
• Two Bottles Riesling by Weiser-Künstler