Goldtropfchen is a brilliant vineyard, but until relatively recently no one has been exploiting it to its full potential. When you taste a golden-hued, deliciously fruity wine like this you can see that top wines can be made and so applaud Reinhold Haart for the efforts he has gone to and shout “Shame!” at all those other producers who are wasting their patches of this great vineyard.
As an aside, my abiding memory of the Goldtropfchen comes from several years ago when I got completely lost whilst trying to escape the Mosel valley. I realised I had to take the next road out I found or I’d be there forever and ended up by driving up a perilously steep, terrifyingly winding road that ran right up the middle of the vineyard. The view was amazing, and you really got a feeling that it was an incredible sun trap, but as I am not the world’s most confident driver I did get more than a shade fingernail-nibblingly worried as I negociated those bends. The smallest step away from being paralysed with fear, in all honesty.
[image image_id=”3510″ size=”medium” align=”left”]Riesling Auslese Piesporter Goldtropfchen 2006, Reinhold Haart
The colour lives up to the golden hue promised by the vineyard’s name, I was almost worried it was oxidised. It is intensely, throbbingly fruity on the nose with ruby grapefruit and passionfruit aromas just bursting from my glass. It does smell exceedingly ripe; not botrytic but made grapes of lunatic-level sun-kissed ripeness. Better than that is its rich mineral tang – this may be ripe but it is not short on complexity. The palate shows off that ripeness in the form of exuberant fruitiness and pronounced sweetness, it is for lovers of sugary wines without a shadow of a doubt. The acid level is just high enough to keep it balanced and refreshing, but I’d like a hint more to satisfy me on the thrilling vivacity and stomach searing front. The minerality is quite delicious and compelling. This is a pretty good wine which is quite accessible now, it will keep for years should you prefer your Rieslings older. Yeah, good stuff.
