2017 Willi Schaefer

This selection of wines constitutes a new first for me: I don’t believe that I’ve ever tasted through a range of several wines from a producer and given each one an A+ rating. The downside is that due first to frost, and then to hail that came at the beginning of August and hit all of the estate’s vineyards, there’s only 50% of a normal crop in 2017. So if you are fortunate enough to see these wines, you need to jump on them immediately.

Christoph Schaefer said that there was a very short window from ripeness to overripeness, so he had to harvest quickly. Additionally, the botrytis was often not what he wanted, and it had to be selected out. (Continue reading here.)