Selbach Oster Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese 2009
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Robert
Parker -
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Winemaker Notes
Excellent with aromatic food. In the "classic" Western cuisine try with rich pates and very aromatic, soft rind cheeses, especially blue cheese. Good with savory dishes that contain a little bit of sweetness in their preparation or sauce. For Asian/Fusion cuisine use with a wide range of flavourful dishes that are spicy or have a sweet and sour combination of flavors. Also nice with fresh fruit and nuts.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Mango, pink grapefruit, cashew, and hints of white raisin in the nose of Selbachs’ extremely late-harvested 2009 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese foreshadow its lushly fruited, richly nutty, silken-textured palate performance. Subtle salinity and stoniness add interest and allure to a lingering, lip-licking finish. This impeccably-balanced and finesseful Riesling is arguably more Auslese than Spatlese, but I won’t quibble. It should be a joy to follow for 20-25 years. This should be a fantastic illustration of its site and vintage even a quarter-century from now.
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Wine Spectator
Plush and opulent, with a smoky, minerally quality running through the concentrated flavors of apricot, peach and baked apple. Key lime pie and meringue notes mark the effusively juicy finish. Drink now through 2022. 80 cases imported.
Other Vintages
2010-
Robert
Parker
Since 1661 the Selbach family has owned vineyards in the Mosel region. Their main treasure is simply what nature presents us with: excellent vineyard-sites, and old, ungrafted vines on steep, south-facing slopes planted on heat-retaining, mineral-rich, rocky slate soil. Their philosophy of winemaking is "hands-on" in the vineyards and "hands-off" in the cellar. Most of Selbach Oster wines are still fermented and matured in the traditional oak "Fuder"-barrels supplemented by a small number of stainless-steel vats. They do not use new oak for Rieslings to preserve the delicate structure of subtle fruit and crisp acidity as purely as possible
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Following the Mosel River as it slithers and weaves dramatically through the Eifel Mountains in Germany’s far west, the Mosel wine region is considered by many as the source of the world’s finest and longest-lived Rieslings.
Mosel’s unique and unsurpassed combination of geography, geology and climate all combine together to make this true. Many of the Mosel’s best vineyard sites are on the steep south or southwest facing slopes, where vines receive up to ten times more sunlight, a very desirable condition in this cold climate region. Given how many twists and turns the Mosel River makes, it is not had to find a vineyard with this exposure. In fact, the Mosel’s breathtakingly steep slopes of rocky, slate-based soils straddle the riverbanks along its entire length. These rocky slate soils, as well as the river, retain and reflect heat back to the vineyards, a phenomenon that aids in the complete ripening of its grapes.
Riesling is by far the most important and prestigious grape of the Mosel, grown on approximately 60% of the region’s vineyard land—typically on the desirable sites that provide the best combination of sunlight, soil type and altitude. The best Mosel Rieslings—dry or sweet—express marked acidity, low alcohol, great purity and intensity with aromas and flavors of wet slate, citrus and stone fruit. With age, the wine’s color will become more golden and pleasing aromas of honey, dried apricot and sometimes petrol develop.
Other varieties planted in the Mosel include Müller-Thurgau, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), all performing quite well here.