The 2017 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese is super clear, fresh and concentrated on the precisely defined and spicy nose with its tea, stewed apricot and peach aromas and notes of black rocks. The palate is a great mix of concentration, purity and finesse as well as honey, salts and piquancy. The lingering salinity causes a spectacularly long but weightless and stimulatingly salty finish that is not built on power or concentration but on finesse and lightness. This 2017 TBA has great energy, class and tension but is highly refined and endless on the finish. Mosel TBA at its best! Tasted in March and April 2019.

Very concentrated with intense lemon, orange and raisin flavors opens the 2015 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese. This Riesling was made from manually destemmed botrytis berries in a perfectly dry and healthy shape. The wine is rich and intense, but light and finessed, and provided with a clear, concentrated fruit and remarkable acidity. There is absolutely no need to open it before 2030.

Rich yet delicate, with plush flavors of baked apple, ripe peach and nectarine that are accented by plenty of citrus zest. Very honeyed, with a zesty finish that features notes of ripe melon and chamomile. Drink now through 2048. 13 cases made.??–KM??Region: Germany / Mosel Select to Add

The Fritz Haag 2010 Braunebeger Juffer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese evinces an especially polished, oleaginously glycerin-rich texture, allying near-implosive concentration of bright fresh citrus, apple jelly, and pit fruit essences with intriguingly diverse manifestations of noble rot – ranging from white truffle through faintly stale white bread, honey, cinnamon, and ginger – as well as alkaline, wet stone, and mouthwateringly saline mineral nuances whose presence is rare for a wine so nobly ripe. There is almost weightless levity to this strikingly penetrating, long-finishing elixir and I imagine it will dazzle for at least a half century. Incidentally, this lot of 105 liters was not earmarked for auction, as Wilhelm and Oliver Haag wanted to take advantage – as they have on occasion before, too – of their being two T.B.A.s to make one of them at least a little more widely and affordably available. “You had to wait to pick,” comments Oliver Haag picked, “but not too late. Because after the end of October we had more rain, and by then the stems weren’t just ripe but just about shot (fertig), so that the grapes were literally hanging by a thin thread.” Different degrees of double-salt de-acidification were essayed (always on must), frequently only on certain lots of an eventual blend; but of the unabashedly residually sweet bottlings, Haag insists that only the Kabinett reflected a significant degree of de-acidification. Haag in my view quite correctly characterizes his generic bottlings as most illustrative of the vintage’s challenges and his selectively-picked residually sweet wines as being above-average ... “average” at this address, of course, having over the past several decades designated a very high quality indeed. “There were a lot of tough decisions to be made this year,” he relates. “Should we harvest this parcel or that? Pick now or later?” I share Haag’s opinion that as a group these wines will need longer than usual in bottle to really show their stuff. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. ( 800) 596-9463

The Fritz Haag 2007 Brauneberger Juffer Trockenbeerenauslese represents the first time that a TBA has been vinified here from that site. Lily, narcissus, quince, and hints of white truffle combine for a memorably ethereal bouquet that anticipates this wine’s uncanny combination of creaminess of texture with virtual weightlessness on the palate. There are no nooks or crannies here, but instead a seamlessly rich, pure, levitating cloud of botrytized Juffer Riesling essence. Expect this to remain supremely elegant for the next half-century, revealing heaven knows what future secrets of its site and vintage. Oliver and Wilhelm Haag have done it again, scoring consistent and sensational success throughout their range. And if 2007 cannot – like 2006 – be compared with any iconic vintage of yore (in 2006’s case, 1953) so much the more exciting. Importer: Rudi Wiest, Cellars International, Carlsbad, CA; tel. 800 596 9463.