Willi Schaefer Rieslings - Looking for Similar Producers

I’m trying to get more and more acquainted with Riesling all the time, and I recently tasted a wine that nearly stopped me in my tracks.

It was a Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Auslese 2006. It was easily the most complex and deeply nuanced Riesling I can remember having and it really caught my attention.

Are there other producers that those in the know might suggest to look for if this one pushes all my buttons? Funny that I typically prefer the GG or trocken style of Riesling, and this one did come across as sweet, but it held its sweetness very well and the complexity of the wine was such that I didn’t care at all.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Fritz Haag perhaps, but any of the top Mosel producers, 06 is an atypical vintage lots of Botrytis, I don’t recall Drinking a Schaefer 06 recently.

Not easy. From what you’re saying you could like those wines that are sweet (the Schaefer 2006 Auslese is definitely sweet, it probably has more than 60 g/l of residual sugar), but where you don’t taste the sweetness. Good producers in that field are J.J. Prüm, von Schubert (Maximin Grünhaus), Egon Müller (expensive) and Tyrell (Karthäuserhof), but they usually have slightly different aromatics than Willi Schaefer Rieslings (more herbal, more white instead of yellow fruit). I’d say you could also look at Weiser-Künstler, Christoffel jun., St. Urbans Hof or Zilliken (plus, of course, a whole range of other Mosel, Saar and Ruwer producers - the choice of high quality producers is wide).

Schaefer is from the middle mosel. There are a lot of truly great producers in the middle mosel, but the wines from each taste a little different due to the styles of the producers. Try JJ Prum, Schloss Lieser, Selbach-Oster, Fritz Haag and Rheinhold Haart for some of the great producers of this region.

Agree that those are great producers, but Schloss Lieser seems a lot sweeter and more intense to me than Willi Schaefer and Reinhold Haart seems sweeter and richer to me.

I agree. And, conversely, von Schubert (Maximin Grünhaus) and Tyrell (Karthäuserhof), which you suggested, typically are higher in acid because the Ruwer is cooler than the Middle Mosel.

That can be a plus in ripe years and with the higher level wines, though, Dusty. If you like Trockens, you might seek out the Saar and Ruwer producers. They’re all labeled as “Mosel” now (stupidly, in my view, but that’s German wine label rules).

This does not help Dusty at all, but each of the producers listed in this thread are essentially singular. Their wines are distinct and largely recognizable from the other producers.

Short answer: there is no other producer like Willi Schaefer, just as there is no other Fritz Haag or Zilliken, or…

Amazing when you really think about it.

I’d say that’s even less helpful!

True David, but I wouldn’t bet much on my ability to consistently recognise those singular traits blind…

:slight_smile:

But how often do we drink blind…

This is the thing isn’t it? How do you know that the producer you think has a singular trait, actually inherently has that trait? Couldn’t it just be born out of an association you made the first time you had the wine, based on accompanying conversation, the setting, tasting notes you read, etc.? I know that probably sounds like “far out, man, do we even really exist?” kinda talk, but when it comes down to, “so and so’s wine always have a toasted seashell quality on the finish” I lose faith.

It’s not a particular trait. It’s the sum of the style.

Martin Müllen and Markus Molitor ca be great as well and in some wines in a similar style

Don’t know about Molitor. I always find Molitor Rieslings to be a bit softer in style than Willi Schaefer.

Me too. Missing the precision of Schaefer.

And simply not as good…

:wink:

Parker’s man in Germany, Stephan Reinhard, seems to be of a different opinion. 3 x 100 for the 2013 vintage for Molitor.

I have had a number of Molitor wines, and while I enjoyed them, they did not entice me to make the effort to seek out more. If they were more readily available I might try more, but they are too hard to source in the USA.

I like the suggestion of Weiser Kunstler. But again those are from a different part of the Mosel.

The reason Willi Schaefer’s wines are so hard to come by these days is precisely because there is noone else who makes wine like he does.

Interesting about people bringing up Markus Molitor. I think he REALLY suffers from having an awful importer. His wines are really classic in style but never appear on the market here or get much press (outside of Reinhardt) because he has a crappy importer I have to think (Schmitt Schone).

Steven, and we are both right! But I don’t really need critics to help me with Mosel wines. :slight_smile:

Funny Molitor is the only Mosel producer I can easily access here.