Fritz Haag
Braunberger Juffer Riesling Grosses Gewaches
Mosel
2023

The producer

For decades, Weingut Fritz Haag has consistently ranked among the top producers of high-quality German wines, largely attributable to the remarkable contributions of the late and legendary Wilhelm Haag. Wilhelm, who led the Mosel VDP for nearly two decades, played a pivotal role. Since 2005, the reins have been in the hands of his son, Oliver Haag. Oliver oversees the cultivation of the extraordinary stony grey/blue slate vineyards of Juffer in Brauneberg. The pinnacle of this vineyard is a substantial plot surrounding the sun dial, known as Sonnenuhr.

In the winemaking process, Oliver employs a thoughtful approach, utilizing a mix of traditional wooden fuders and modern temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks. The wooden fuders contribute to complexity and finesse, while the stainless-steel tanks aid in preserving the wines' freshness and intensity. The resulting wines from Weingut Fritz Haag stand out as some of the most elegant, pure, and captivating offerings in Germany.

The wine

Fritz Haag's Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Grosses Gewächs is a distinguished dry white wine from Germany's Mosel region. Sourced from the esteemed Brauneberger Juffer vineyard, this wine exemplifies the pinnacle of Riesling production, designated as Grosses Gewächs, indicating a top-tier, dry wine from a premier vineyard site. The 2021 vintage showcases a complex and clear profile, with salty and limey notes, crystalline definition, and a racy character. It offers fine extract and a real sense of energy and detail, with a taut structure at its core, crisp and persistent fruit, and a fresh but fully ripe acid character. The wine maintains the racy finesse and pixelation of the vintage whilst not being in any way hard. This Riesling pairs excellently with seafood, poultry, and light vegetarian dishes, making it a versatile choice for various culinary experiences.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.