2022 Riesling Trocken $35
This is slate-laced sunshine. The aromatic panoply of peach and apricot are drenched in reverb and affixed on the palate to almost redlining acidity. The crunch is there, but it’s a gold and yellow crunch, and deliciously demonstrative of the extensive declassification of fruit to ensure that Adam’s pricier 2022s are exceptional. A beautiful byproduct is that the relegating of so much Grand Cru fruit to the entry levels also ensured that this wine is exceptional. You might be able to afford better, but when you’re drinking this, you’ll find it hard to imagine that a more satisfying dry Mosel Riesling actually exists.
2022 im Pfarrgarten Riesling Feinherb $35
Andreas was enthralled about how well Pfarrgarten did in 2022. The year was literally murderous to young vines, but perhaps you didn’t know that this vineyard was actually planted in the late ‘60s (with a portion replanted in 2013). Being at the foot of the Sengerei slope where things get less precipitous, Pfarrgarten handled the hydric stress rather well. My note begins with how this smells “absolutely fucking amazing”, and that the high-wire acidity, so shrill in many 2022 Mosels, is delightfully analog and salivating. It shows drier than the ‘21 version, though both are perfectly in balance. Yellow and gold fruits abound, as does a lusty, vital saltiness through an impossibly sustained finish. This is Mosel Riesling — in all its singular, succulent glory.
2022 in der Sengerei Riesling Feinherb $62
It’s extremely rare amongst official VDP Grosse Lagen (Grand Crus) that this micro-parcel within Hofberg is neither legally dry (in which case it would be a GG) nor part of the Prädikatswein hierarchy (in which case it would probably qualify for a very ripe Kabinett or a barely-legal Spätlese, but without the expected sweetness of either). Instead, its precarious sense of balance is breathtaking, with 22 g/L of residual sugar and just 10% alcohol if you’re one for analyses. It’s an atypical ‘22 in that it’s hard to get a read on, but the taut texture and the lacy whispers of lemon, strawberry and wintergreen swirl in a slate-framed kaleidoscope. The perceived sweetness is hilariously nominal (which also means it’s absolutely essential) and the core is palpably dense, perhaps from the 65-year-old vines. As this is perennially one of the icons of Mosel Riesling, I’m positive that it’s a legend in the making, even if it’s not doing cartwheels for us at present.
2022 Dhroner Hofberg Riesling Kabinett $50 / MAGNUM $114
Always prone to hyperbole, I became increasingly excited as I tasted this and eventually noted that it’s quite simply one of the best wines ever. It doesn’t sizzle as vociferously as its 2021 counterpart, but it’s somehow more precise, stately and white fruity (the imagination that this requires is fuelled by each sniff and sip). It’s so infectiously happy, with brassy red apple notes (Hofberg!), and the underside of a perfect pretzel sporting a wedding ring with a 45-carat sea-salt diamond. Haunting and expansive in a vertical sense, this is a confident and relaxed Kabinett. On paper, it seems that 2022 and classical Kabinett are incongruous, but this is one of the brightest stars in a vintage that provided a night-sky replete with great Kabi.
2022 Dhroner Hofberg Spätlese $62
In full rebellion of the unprecedented summer heat comes this cool, springy, herbal MASTERPIECE, and seriously the most complex and winsome Hofberg Spätlese in recent memory. It hides raspberry and basil sorbet timebombs on your tongue and amongst your gums, detonating hedonic bursts of flavour so you can keep microdosing Hofberg as you go about your life. I sometimes suspect that my infatuation with Kabinett is impeding my appreciation of great Spätlesen, but this one sure didn’t get by me, and I would strongly suggest that you don’t let it get by you either! Zero botrytis, 100% slimline, old-school, brain-sizzling Mosel Spätlese.
2022 Dhroner Hofberg Auslese $82
In deference to the drinkability of the Auslesen of previous generations, this “drinky” style is an Adam staple, but in the hottest, driest vintage of the estate’s two-decade history, it’s unexpectedly the ripest wine that they made! Like the Sengerei, it wasn’t effusively expressive on the day of my visit, but everything is in the right place, and at its core it’s a robust and smoldering confluence of animated minerality and soaring, gold-plated fruit — it just needs a bit of time to fan out. 36 bottles in Canada.
