2014 A.J. Adam Dhroner Hofberg Riesling Kabinett
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
Sourced in the back of the side valley from healthy grapes with 79° Oechsle, the steel-fermented 2014 Hofberg Kabinett shows a very clear and pure, smoky-flavored bouquet with fine and ripe, yet lovely piquant Riesling flavors along with lemon aromas. Light, piquant and sweet on the palate, this is an extraordinary Kabinett because it is not just light, fruity and piquant, but also very complex and filled with tension. This is a picture-book Mosel Kabinett and it drinks pretty dry. It's a Must Buy.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Picked at only 79 Oechsle, this comes off feather-light without having had to leave behind more than faint sweetness. Fresh lemon and toasted hickory nut in the nose translate into a piquant and brightly citric palate impression reinforced by tart rhubarb and offset by mouthwatering salinity. The finish of this lean Riesling is almost painfully penetrating but at the same time ultra-invigorating. Administering a sniff and sip of these slate-infused smelling salts would certainly wake someone from a dead sleep! Give it time to settle down a bit. It might eventually age fantastically, though I am hedging my bets. (This is effectively Adam’s default wine of the vintage: the place to which clean fruit not suited for other bottlings was shunted. Given the volume, he had to bottle twice. But it was done almost back-to-back; the two wines have identical chemistry, indeed are indistinguishable – so their difference in A.P. numbers is irrelevant.)