Fritz Haag
Braunberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese
Mosel
2021

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

Fuder 10 represents a carefully chosen small parcel selection, its size further reduced by the early-season impact of peronospera. The grapes originate from a vineyard near the river, consistently achieving exceptional ripeness. While following the Auslese approach, it contains just under 5% botrytis in the blend. This wine showcases remarkable purity, substantial weight, a hint of creaminess, and gentle surges of succulent peach and red apple notes. It embodies a harmonious blend of richness and elegance.

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.