2001 Mosel -- varied vintage assessments 17 years on

I was looking through Vinous tonight to see what the vintage assessment was on 2001 Mosel wines, not having given it any thought for 15 years. I remember the hype in 2003 that got me to buy a bunch for my youngest daughter’s birth year. I don’t open them often, but the Prum’s, Muelenhof’s, Christoffel’s, et al never disappoint. I do see David S. is less impressed today than he was on release. Others either never updated their thoughts or don’t agree with him.

Not that a vintage assessment is that important at the end of the day… but, it is interesting how you can go from this is the greatest thing since before I tasted wine to something that essentially in the middle of the pack.

David Schildnecht - Vinous
Drought and heat gave way in September to extended rain, but also to temperatures cool enough to check botrytis. There followed an exceedingly balmy October. Imposingly richly-textured, dense Rieslings from Kabinett to TBA nonetheless sometimes strayed into diffusion or textural hardness. Only in the Middle Mosel (in this critic’s contrarian opinion), does the vintage’s early and still widespread reputation for greatness unequivocally fit. There, I would rate the vintage 92.

Jancis
A very great, long-term vintage with remarkable levels of both grape ripeness (thanks to a wonderful Indian summer) and acidity (thanks to a nerve-wrackingly wet but cool September). A high proportion of botrytised sweet wines were made - in fact there was such a shortage of basic QbA wine that considerable amounts were declassified to satisfy market demand.

Decanter
5/5 — ‘Great Vintage’

Parker
91 Points Mosel / 95 pts in Rheinhessen

Wine Spectator
Best vintage in 30 years. Ripe, healthy grapes made pure, harmonious wines at all quality levels — 98 pts


For those who have been following the wines – what say you?

Cheers.

I haven’t opened enough 01s of late to have a really informed opinion. But based on tasting in the early years, in the lower Pradikats – QbA and Kabinett – I prefer 2002. I think '01 was probably better above that level.

2001 Mosel remains one of the best vintage/region pairs ever to my palate. Some producers whiffed (Willi Schaefer, Egon Muller), but the ones who nailed it, really nailed it: JJ Christoffel, JJ Prum, Selbach-Oster…

Agreed. And I would add Fritz Haag to the nailed it list. It is an especially good Auslese vintage for those of you who, like me, prefer a little less fat and a little more zest at the upper Pradikat levels.

Absolutely right on F Haag. One of their last good vintages, really.

Still the best vintage I have tasted from release*. 2002 has some real charm, so I get John’s comment, but I continue to be amazed by the vintage. It is slow to evolve though, so it not for the impatient.



*I started broadly tasting the wines at release with the 1996 vintage.

Rate the vintage 93 points?

I have always liked 2001 wines but have never been sold on the fact that it is a great vintage rather than an excellent one. For me, the wines have never had enough acidity - I have always loved the 1990s, for example, a lot more.

Howard - you must hate what are considered recent top years (e.g. 2005, 2007, 2012), as they all have lower acidity than 2001.

I like 2002 a lot, and think a handful of producers - Donnhoff, Schaefer - had equally impressive collections that year, and many in the Saar (Zilliken, Egon Muller among others) did better than they did in 2001.

But in general, 2001 stands on its own looking back at the last couple of decades. Agree with Adrian re. the Mosel, but I also find it exceptional in a lot of other areas - Leitz and Weil’s collections in the Rheingau both stand out, as do Bassermann-Jordan and Muller-Catoir in the Pfalz.

And for me, it has an extra level of acidity vs. years like 2005, 2007, 2015 that pushes the wines to another level.

Does 2001 have more acidity than 2015? 2015 is already pretty darn high.

I don’t drink vintages. But think The Prüm and Haag wines I have are truely superb, the Haag auction Spatlese in magnum we drank Christmas 2011 (yes too young but in a restaurant) was one of the best I’ve had.

I think 2001 is great. Certainly the best overall vintage I’ve tasted.

I also enjoy 2002. I think it gets overshadowed by 2001, but a perfectly cromulent vintage in its own right.

2001 is a great vintage in most of Germany. Many producers, especially less heralded ones like Strub, made their best wines (by far) I ever tasted from that address.

2001 has better integrated acidity. It’s not all that different from 2015.

Do you think that was true on release, or has it happened over time?

2001 has always been well integrated. That was the beauty of the vintage when it first came out.

I was thinking of Strub as well. I got their '01 Niersteiner Paterberg - Spätlese for $14. It went through an extended boring period, and I wrote it off as a dull wine. But it has blossomed in recent years, showing a lot of complexity and great balance. Now I’m sorry I drank so many too early!

2001 was basically the only German vintage I bought deeply of, on release, at Lyle Fass’s suggestion.

I have loved them the whole time, although have very few - under a handful left - now.

So not much to compare to - in the sense of having followed other German vintages - but I have been thrilled.

Other German years were mostly just bought and quaffed, not cellared. Although I have put away a scant handful of 2015s recently.

I consider the 01 Fritz Haag kabinetts to be about the best value I have ever purchased.
The Christoffel and Prum ausleses were magnificent as well.

I know Rovani doesn’t/didn’t get much Riesling cred, but I found his exuberant notes — calling it something like the best vintage from any region maybe ever— and very high scores for the 01s extremely helpful in targeting 01s Germans (I ended up with 18 cases of 01 Germans, including reloading on a bunch in 2010 when dumped on WineBid) and by and large his calls on release have been born out.