Fritz Haag Riesling Brauneberger Tradition (Feinherb/Off-Dry) 2018 (screw cap)

The Brauneberger Riesling feinherb is a quintessential example of a wine that tastes dry on the palate, even if the numbers tell a different story. Delicate, playful fruits are perfectly harmonized with a subtle sweetness and a racy, focused acidity. Yet it is the interplay of these diverse components that ultimately forms a balanced and complex Riesling. Tropical fruits, florality and extract lend this wine its incredible depth and make it a beautiful companion to a range of food.

‘It offers a beautiful and delicately ample nose of white peach, pear, white flowers, whipped sour cream and minty elements. The wine is beautifully playful and elegant on the creamy yet delicately racy palate. The finish is superbly tart and persistent. This is a great effort with the depth of a top-end dry Riesling.’ 92 points, Mosel Fine Wines, August 2019.

‘Highly refined, fresh and well-articulated in its crunchy, flinty slate perfume. Lush and salty-piquant on the silky-textured palate, this is a light to medium-bodied, firmly structured but filigreed and delicate Brauneberger with a long, stimulatingly fresh finish.’ (90-92) points, Stephan Rheinhardt, The Wine Advocate, June 2019.

'Beautifully fresh aromas of chamomile, honey and white peaches here. The palate has a stony layer of pithy yellow citrus fruit.' 92 points, Stuart Pigott, James Suckling, December 2019.

'Oliver Haag has made an absolutely brilliant set of wines in 2018 and this may well be the single finest vintage collection of young wines I have ever tasted from this iconic estate in Brauneberg. It is a flat out brilliant vintage for Weingut Fritz Haag; these are amongst Germany’s very greatest examples of the 2018 vintage.' John Gillman, View From The Cellar, October 2019.

The historic Fritz Haag wine estate is located in the heart of the central Mosel River Valley. The earliest documentation of the estate dates back to 1605. At that time, the village in which it is situated was known as ‘Dusemond.’ In 1925, this village was renamed ‘Brauneberg’ (‘brown mountain,’ a reference to the color of the slate soil in this area of the Mosel) in an endeavour to further promote the reputation of its world-renowned vineyards ‘Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr’ and ‘Brauneberg Juffer.’

The name of the famous vineyards ‘Juffer,’ which translates as ‘old maid’ or ‘virgin’ in the local dialect, goes back to 1790. The proprietor of these exceptional vineyard slopes at the time, the aristocratic Kurpfälzische Kammerherr Wunderlich, had three daughters who all remained unmarried and lived the lives of spinsters. As a consequence, when they took over the vineyard management from their father, the name ‘Brauneberger Juffer’ was born and the wines soon became well-known and famed in the wine world. The vineyards are recognised as true pearls of the Mosel region and were treasured even by Napoleon.

For many years, the Fritz Haag wine estate was successfully headed by the endlessly energetic Wilhelm Haag, and achieved, under his guidance a world-renowned reputation. Wilhelm Haag was the first to win the acclaim ‘winemaker of the year,’ a highly coveted accolade introduced in 1994 by the famous Gault Millau Wineguide. Since 2005, son Oliver has taken over the
reins and has joined his successful father in leading the estate into the future.

The Fritz Haag estate owns 18.5ha of vineyards which are all exclusively planted with Riesling. The excellent micro-climate and the deep slate soils of the Brauneberger Juffer slope form the basis for some of the most intensely flavored and elegantly-structured Riesling wines of the Mosel region. Oliver Haag, the current proprietor, rigorously selects the clones most suited to the microclimate of his vineyards in order to achieve the maximum potential in the grapes. As a winemaker, Oliver’s skills are matched by few. His wines, which display a pleasing subtle colour, show a well-defined palate that reaches from honeysuckle to pears and apples. They are laced with citrus and underlying mineral tones, reflecting the brown slate vineyards of Brauneberg.

The Fritz Haag estate produces wines that cover the full style spectrum, starting from a dry style and ranging to lusciously sweet. A mineral ‘slate’ character and a pronounced and fruity acidity give the wines their elegant sophistication and their great aging potential. The estate’s graceful, well-refined Rieslings are rated as impressive examples of the finest wines the Mosel region has to offer.