10/18/25 - 

Each year stories tend to lean the same direction, warmer days, shorter growing seasons, and riper wines. In Germany in 2024 that wasn't necessarily the case. Although the season started out warmer, there was early frost  in the end of April that lead to huge loss for many winemakers, especially in the Mosel. Following the frost things seemed to calm down a bit with a mild summer temperatures, eventually the season did turn wet and rainy. September and October continued on to be cold and rain filled but the cold temperatures did allow for ripeness levels to slow down and take their time providing incredible acidity levels. Long story short, for those who put the work in throughout the growing season, the quality of grapes was exceptional, there just wont be a lot of wine to go around. But at the end of the day, I know I prefer higher quality wine with lower yields than the alternative. Today we are highlighting the magical wines of Julian Haart and Willi Schaefer alongside a few of our favorite new releases from Stein, Lauer, and Gunderloch. 

Florian Lauer (photo: Eben Lillie)

Having been lucky enough to taste through a handful of 2024 Rieslings already this season I can confirm that the wines are truly exceptional this vintage. They are wines of extreme purity and finesse, with fantastic acidity that doesn't overtake the entire wine. 
As previously mentioned the kicker is that there isn't a lot to go around, many winemakers lost 75% and more due to frost and additionally many winemakers could not get the ripeness needed for many Spatlese and Auslese bottlings. What does this mean for all of us? Stock up while you can, our importers don't have a huge stock that will last the year until 2025s are released so we can't ensure that we will have these wines available for months on end. It is important to add at this point that these wines, especially the Kabinetts, will age beautifully for 10+ years to come.  

Christophe Schaefer describes the vintage by saying, “Even if hopes of a generous harvest and some higher Prädikat wines were not fulfilled, the young Rieslings from the 2024 vintage are pure joy. Those youngsters are polished like sparkling diamonds, showing multi-layered flavors, while being finely detailed, slim, and tight, as well as playful and deep at the same time – they’re just fascinating!”  He and his wife Andrea have been making the wines at this small family estate since 2015. The Schaefer family can trace its roots in the Mosel back to 1121. But today they are still making incredible Rieslings from a mere 4.2 hectares of vines. Even with the change in leadership almost a decade a go, the philosophy behind their methods hasn't really changed over the last three generations. Their main focus is on how the grapes taste, from harvest, to fermentation and aging every step is intended on finding the perfect balance. That is why this storied estate is a real benchmark for the region. 

Nadine and Julian Haart (Photo: E. Lillie)

In a slight juxtaposition, the Haart family can be traced back to 1337, but Julian only began estate-bottling in 2010. Prior to this he worked with inarguably two of the greatest estates in Germany: Egon Muller and Keller. It is no wonder that his wines have grown to such acclaim with a resume like that. His reputation increased greatly in the late 2010's and his wines have been sought after treasures since! Today, his estate encompasses about 5 hectares of vines and he plans to keep it that way. He and his wife Nadine do almost all the vineyard and cellar work themselves with the occasional help from friends. The two of them are crafting exceptional wines with intense purity of fruit and sharp, polished acidity. Due to the scarcity on a few of these wines we will have a 2 bottle limit on some bottlings. 

Piesporter Goldtopfchen vineyard (Photo: E. Lillie)

The above information on the 2024 season and harvest is summarized from an incredible article from Stephen Bitterolf at Vom Boden, as well are from reading through some winemaker's vintage notes. I highly encourage anyone interested to spend some time reading Stephen's full piece here to get an even better understanding on this fantastic vintage. 
 
-Hanna Krilov Cohen

>>>VIEW THE WINES<<<