Markus Molitor Wehlener Klosterberg Riesling Spatlese 2015
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Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This vineyard is at the center of the Molitor property and stretches up the steep slopes to the left and right of their winery. It is located in a side valley directly
opposite to Zeltingen, and faces almost due south. Light to medium-heavy stony soils of decomposed slate with a high proportion of iron produce mineral-driven and longlived wines with delicate, elegant fruit.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Molitor's 2015 Riesling Wehlener Klosterberg Spätlese (Green Capsule) is very clear and aromatic on the nose and displays a very attractive nectarine aroma intermixed with reductive flinty and yeasty notes. On the palate, this is an intense, dense and mouth-filling Spätlese in the medium-sweet style. Its acidity is fine and piquant and carries the wine into a long and aromatic finish with mouth-watering salinity.
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James Suckling
A great combination of spring-like freshness. All the ripe fruits of summer and the cool of fall. If you don't get a glass of this delightful wine some time soon, then you might suffer a winter of discontent!
Other Vintages
2020-
Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James
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Parker
Robert
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.