November 29, 2023 - Thanksgiving 2023 (Dogwood Grove/Rock Spring, Virginia): I'm not great at evaluating aged spätlese due to a lack of experience, but this was very enjoyable. This was like drinking honey wine – viscous, syrupy, delicious. Notes of flowers, honeycomb, green apple, ripe apple. It picked up steam (complexity) over time.
June 27, 2023 - Refined, fruity, extremely well balanced, perfect mild sweetness with good acidity, moderate -good length. Reliable as always.
February 1, 2023 - The nose is an explosion of rich tropical fruit, coconut, and plastic. The palate is so plush and rich that it feels like an Auslese. There isn't a lot of lively acid, but it's enough to keep the sugar from being too cloying.
This is definitely a product of a ripe vintage, which suits the Fritz Haag style well.
September 27, 2022 - Served slightly chilled. Light-medium hay in colour. Lovely aromas of lychees, canned peaches, apricots, and a touch of honey-pineapple. Green apples, yellow mangoes, with a touch of quince and some flintiness running along the whole palate. Medium bodied with a medium-long finish. This is an excellent showing; wish I bought more when I got this over 8 years ago.
November 24, 2020 - Starting to unfold now after 11 years. I would still prefer to see this again in at least another five years.
Good balance and the acidity has loosened its grip on the fruit that opens more up.
November 14, 2019 - 7,5% alcohol.
Pale yellow-green color. Somewhat restrained but pleasantly developed nose with aromas of apple jam, some ripe apricot, a little bit of mature Riesling's rich creaminess, a hint of canned pineapple and a touch of beeswax. The wine is medium-sweet, balanced and medium-bodied on the palate with flavors of ripe golden apples, some cantaloupe, a little bit of blood orange, a hint of steely minerality and a touch of apple jam. High acidity. The finish is quite long, steely and focused with medium-sweet flavors of sweet apples, some grapefruit marmalade, a little bit of steely minerality, a hint of tangy salinity and a touch of honey.
A tasty and quite youthful Spätlese that is both enjoyably precise and surprisingly light for a 2009 Riesling. I could've expected some more ripeness and sense of concentration, since the wine is slightly lacking in intensity. However, since the wine feels relatively young for its age, it might be that it might gain some further sense of concentration with age. Nevertheless, it feels like there is some good upside to aging this further in a cellar. Nice!
April 2, 2016 - 92+
June 17, 2014 - Similar to previous bottles. Best performance at 7-9C approx. It loses some grace when warms up further.
Great value elderflower, heather, pear and pineapple juice fit for a king.
April 21, 2014 - 2005-2011 German Spatleses (Rich & Peggy's House, Los Altos, CA): Slightly sulfurous nose, not much underneath once it blew off. Ripe pear and flowers broadly coat the mouth. Long fruit finish. (my 3rd, group's 1st)
November 2, 2013 - Well, it pairs well with Sushi. But basically I only get sweetness, well balanced with acidity and then some melon. Good, but very simple.