The 2003 vintage which was as variable in Germany, and in almost the same ways, as in Bordeaux. Some wines from the hardest-working estates are quite delicious however, and none more so than the most successful Rieslings from the steepest banks of the rivers Mosel and Saar.
Haardt to Heart is the basic QbA Riesling from Theo Haart of Weingut Reinhold Haart (www.haart.de), arguably the brightest star of that sinned-against village Piesport, although bear in mind that virtually all German Riesling picked in 2003 reached Spätlese ripeness or higher, so QbA is a stylistic rather than technical term. This halbtrocken-style, all-Riesling wine from a steep site was launched with the 2000 vintage but the newly released 2003 is absolutely delicious. The nose is wonderfully pure and bright. The fruit on the palate so clearly delineated it brings to mind my common analogy with diamond-cutting. And above all the wine, for such a modest category, is stunningly expressive of where it comes from. What more, I wrote in my tasting notes, could you want for early drinking from this extraordinary (and not always successful) vintage? All of the Haart 2003s I tasted had an utterly admirable combination of opulence (the hallmark of the 2003s) and tension (all too often absent). The wine is about 10.5 per cent alcohol so could be drunk with or without food and its 18-25 g.l residual sugar is not especially noticeable even in this relatively low-acid vintage.
The wine is currently on sale in Germany at under ¤7, is £9.99 (a stiff increase) from Raeburn Fine Wines in Edinburgh, Scotland, and should be available from the following Haart importers:
USA: Cellars International Inc, San Marcos, CA 92069
Canada: LCBO Ontario via HHD Imports Inc, Waterloo, Ontario
Hong Kong: Enjoy Wines, 7D Ming Wah Ind Bldg, 17-33 Wang Lung Street, Tsuen Wan
Korea: Handock Wine Co Ltd, Trade Tower 3505, Kangnam-Ku, Seoul, 135-729
Dubai: Truebell Marketing&Trading LLC, PO Box 35629 Dubai, UAE
Singapore: Taste Fine Wine Merchant 113 B Jalan Besar, Singapore 208833
Taiwan: Evergreen Laurel Coll., 1F, 21-1,1-Chiang Street, Taipeh 104
Denmark: Arnholt Wine, Industriskellet4, Kongsted, 4683 Roennede
| To British (and other) wine lovers I can heartily recommend the 2003 vintage of Ernie Loosen’s Dr L Riesling. This is a bit sweeter and, at 8.5 per cent alcohol, quite considerably lighter – more of an aperitif wine or one of those we so famously, and theoretically, drink in our gardens of an afternoon. Dr L is designed to be made from grapes of at least Kabinett ripeness (more than 70 Oechsle) grown on the slate hillsides of the Mosel, largely from bought-in grapes. In 2003 the grapes reached Oechsle levels of between 86 and 92. Dr L has been so successful that the fruit is now bought from almost 150 growers, albeit many of them with only a weekend acre or two. (I visited Loosen last month at the same time as Bob Bertheau, the Chateau Ste Michelle winemaker with whom Ernie makes Eroica Riesling in Washington state. CSM deal with about 50 growers to produce their 500,000 cases of Eroica. Together, Ernie’s 150 growers produce about 17,000 cases of Dr L.)
Dr L 2003, screwcapped for the first time, is pure, grapefruit-fresh and well delineated with some white peach fruit even if it is relatively simple – as one would expect of a wine designed to retail at around £6 (the 2002 is currently on special offer at Sainsbury’s for just £4.99).
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This great-value introduction to the open, fruity style of 2003 is available at £5.99 from www.hedleywright.co.uk and from the following retailers at between £5.99 and £6.49:
Oddbins
Great Western Wine of Bath
SH Jones of Banbury
Noel Young of Trumpington, Cambridge
Connolly's of Birmingham
D Byrne of Clitheroe
EH Booth supermarkets in NW England
The Cellar Door of Overton, Hants
Adnams of Southwold
J Nicholson of Northern and Southern Ireland
Luvians Bottle Shop of Cupar, Fife
Constantine Stores near Falmouth
Charles Steevenson Wines of Tavistock
Hicks & Don of Westbury near Bath
See www.winesearcher.com for retail stockists around the globe.
Other fine 2003 Riesling QbAs from the far north of German wine country have been made by Egon Müller, Fritz Haag and Schloss Lieser. Few of them have been shipped yet but the delicious Schloss Lieser, which costs just ¤5.50 in Germany, has been shipped to the following importers:
US: Cellars International, Rudi Wiest Selections, San Marcos, CA 92069
www.germanwine.net
New Zealand: Caros Wine Merchants, Auckland
www.caros.co.nz
Singapore: Just Palate, 26 West Coast Terrace, Singapore 127235