2011 Piesporter Schubertslay Kabinett

From the coolest sector of this site, Haart’s 2011 Piesporter Schubertslay Riesling Kabinett displays lemon, grapefruit and apple against a backdrop of wet stone, with lemon zest and pistachio, salt and crushed stone piquantly, invigoratingly, and saliva-inducingly impinging on the finish. This wine’s overt sweetness is by no means excessive and its brightness and delicacy are striking. I would expect it to be worth following for at least 12-15 years. In the context of the current collection, it represents an especially fine value, seemingly on account of even those growers who champion Kabinett – and even when they have hardly any wine to sell – viewing wines so-labeled as “having to” sell for less than do others! Young Julian Haart – for considerable background on whom, consult my report on his auspicious 2010 debut in issue 199 – possesses impressively-situated old vines in three sites, one famous and two that deserve far greater renown (which indeed they enjoyed a century ago). While total volume here is still tiny, happily, a minuscule slice of that is now allocated for the U.S.; and property in Wintrich and Piesport rented from an uncle will enable Haart, beginning in 2013, to farm considerably augmented acreage – enough to support him as a full-time wine grower. (His joint holding and bottling with Andreas Adam is reviewed as part of my coverage of the latter’s collection.) The 2011s were picked in mid to late October. Having already reached 12-12.5% alcohol and displaying pronounced fruitiness, Haart no doubt wisely felt it would have been a mistake to insist on fermenting any of this year’s “dry” bottlings further just for the sake of achieving legal Trockenheit, so they retain – but merely hint at – ten or a dozen grams of residual sugar (and in the case of the wine labeled “Ohligsberg,” 15 grams). These wines were fermented in cask or tank according to what suited their small volumes, but the recent acquisition by Haart and Adam of a Dhron cellar’s worth of additional casks in good condition means that a larger share of Haart’s wines will in future be able to ferment in wood. Importer: Vom Boden Imports, New York, NY; info@vomboden.com