I just finished reading the excellent new issue of Mosel Fine Wines, No 15, and in particular their review of the 2001 Mosel vintage. This is an excellent publication for anyone interested in German wines.
Jean Fisch and David Rayer do a wonderful ten year look back at a vintage which won the heart of many American collectors and drinkers. While the Mosel Fine Wines’ favorites from the vintage are the usual suspects (JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr- they are over the top about Manfred’s wines of all levels, Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr and Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst) they review the vintage in good detail with over 70 tasting notes.
Is anyone drinking their 2001s spatleses and ausleses and, if so, which wines are you drinking and where do you find the wines to be at this stage? When first released 2001 vintage was compared to 1959, heavenly praise, ten years after do they still maintain their reputation or has another uniformly fabulous decade of German wines diminished 2001’s golden luster? 2001 was the first vintage of German wines I went long on release although I have backfilled strongly in 1983, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, and 1997. I tend to buy kabinets, spatlese, and auslese wines although I do cellar some of the sweeter bottles. At this stage I am drinking heavily from 1994 and 1997 and am no where near thinking about the first ten years of the twenty first century, although I never complain if friends open up young rieslings for me before they close down.
I have notice this board is becoming more riesling centric and therefore look for some interesting responses.
I haven’t drunk many 01 Ausleses, but the Spatleses I’ve had have generally only beginning to enter the secondary stage. They’re quite pleasant now, but if you’ve been drinking 94-97s, I think you’ll find the 01 Spatleses still a bit simple. They’ve shed a lot of baby fat, but haven’t developed many tertiary aromas yet.
There have been any number of highly praised Mosel vintages since 2001. 2005, 2007 and 2009 lead that pack, and honestly I don’t like any of them nearly as much as 2001. I bought a lot of 2005, and sadly find most of them fat and simple (though not so fat and simple as 2003). 2007 and 2009 are very nice vintages, but both remind me of 1997 - lovely to drink, easy to forget.
I am dipping into some 2001s. John is right in that they have not developed much in the way of bottle aged complexity yet, but they are starting to shed fat, and some of the bottles are drinking very well even if they are still much too young. I’ve had outstanding bottles from Christoffel and Meulenhof in the last year or so. I have not yet dipped into Prum, Grunhaus, Haart or Schaefer in any big way except for one bottle of 2001 Grunhaus Herrenberg Auslese a couple of years ago that was very young but delicious (Grunhaus doubters will regret their misfortune).
The acid/sugar balance in the 2001er wines is just SOOO electric for lack of a better word. I am not a huge aficionado, but I haven’t encountered any vintages since that come close in terms of that certain zing. That said I have certainly enjoyed my fair share of 2002, 2004, and 2005 wines. They just don’t have that certain something I find in a lot of 2001’s.
The 2001s have an amazing intensity- the acidity is high, the fruit is intense. And theyre not a bit overripe- the spatleses taste like actual spatlese. Some of the 2009s I’ve tried have a resemblance to 2001, but frankly, I just keep buying 2001s at auction for similar prices and you get better juice. I find the spats have advanced a little, but the auslesen are resolutely primary.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the tip on the '01 article, I’ll have to check it out. Like some above, I’ve been checking in on some of the '01 spats, which are great, but still very young.
Yup. I have actually begun drinking a bunch of my '01s because I don’t want to wait so long that the zing and electricity is gone, which sometimes happens with age.
The Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr is indeed a spectacular wine and that’s one of the ones I’m going to try to hold onto for the longer term, although it shows so magnificently already that’s easier said than done.
My daughter stopped by for dinner tonight and she really likes German riesling, so we opened a bottle of Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Erdener Treppchen Spatlese '01. There was a little petrol on the nose, light in body, the sweetness balanced by a bright acidity. It was actually less sweet than I was expecting, similar to the 2004 JJ Prum Wehlener Kabinet I had last week. Enjoyable now, but has a lot of upside potential.
That was the first vintage I bought and essentially have not touched my cache yet. I plan to start drinking the Kabinett’s basically pretty much starting now.
I’ve managed to pick up older stuff that suits my palate either at auction or the not infrequent cellar releases from very good domaines (e.g. 93 Ziliken Spatlese comes to mind)
Just drank an Oestricher Lenchen 1996 Kabinett from Wegeler which was mature, perhaps a touch too much but a fine drink.
It’s not Mosel, but close geographically and stylistically: I’ve Dönnhoff’s auction Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg Spätlese 2001 twice in the past 6 months and it has been nothing short of delicious. Still very young and definitely not secondary. It had lost some of the cassis/muscaty notes of super young riesling. The finish was zingy and saline. A really good drink?. Sometimes, I find myself wishing I liked Dönnhoff wines less as I only have so much.
Also had a very good 2001 Eitelsbacher Karthaüserhofberg Spätlese from Tyrell last November that was singing. Far too easy to like.
On the other hand, I am not on board with those who see 07 as a distinct step lower than 01. I thought 07 was great across the board of sweetness levels. And at the Kabinett and Spätlese levels and among top producers, I think 04 might be my favorite vintage of the decade.
Which one, Jeremy? Friday night, I opened the 01 kabinett (after zilliken’s 09 and loosen’s 04 from wehlen) at a dinner pairing kabinett with fried chicken, collard greens, and cornbread at the home of my friends Tim and Francoise, who were also hosting Jeanne-Marie Deschamps - Tim was amazed at how well kabinett worked with the “southern” meal he and his wife prepared for their visitor from France - but she wasn’t and neither was I.
This 01 showed well and I think it’s as good as it’s going to be. On the other hand, the auction spatlese I opened last november needed quite a bit of air to firm up sufficiently and I think needs more time in the cellar. Generally, I am starting to open my kabinetts fairly frequently while being more sparing in opening my spatlesen and non-botrytis auslesen - although in these latter categories, Muehenhof’s Trepchen spatlese and Vollenweider’s Goldegrube spatlese and Haa’gs Auslese #10 showed very well, despite being too young. Particularly striking was Muller’s auction kabinett, which demonstrated how riesling can be both delicate and intense simultaneously.
And not to forget the Trocken (dry) wines from 2001. Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spätlese trocken from Markus Molitor recently was incredibly good. Very young showing no hint of petrol, just pure stone
In my view no later vintage has achieved a better balance than 2001. 2005 is, as David says, rather flabby. 2007 may also be a little bit low on acidity. 2009 is rather upfront without the depht of 2001. 2002, 2004, 2008 are not that substantially ripe.
Of course: Every vintage has its own standout wines…
I really enjoyed the article as well, and have a lot of wines from this vintage in the cellar.
My biggest surprise in the article was the relatively short drinking windows for the Spatlese - 2016 for the Selbach-Oster and 2021 for a bunch of others.
Guess I need to start some drinking on my non-Prums!
It’s still drinking very well. It hasn’t changed much, though it has calmed down a bit. Scheurebe tends not to evolve much, but rather hold over the medium term (IME).
Maureen, thank you for pointing the glaring omission. It was a Spätlese and I have edited my post. Your description of Egon Müller’s 2001 Auction Kabinett matches my experience of the same wine in 2002. Most Kabinett’s feel a major step down in intensity from the Spätlesen versions, not so Müller’s. All the vibrancy and intensity at that alcohol and sugar level is quite extraordinary. As someone who makes only dry wines, I frequently feel like there is something magical about this.
And concerning the comment on drinking windows, I suspect that the authors are being conservative, which is fair. Age any wine past the 20 year mark and you start seeing very increased bottle variation and the quality of your storage has a major impact too. That said, they are giving windows and as David Bueker points out, the wine will have the final word.
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