Melsheimer Mosel Riesling Handwerk 2016
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Bottled with 10% alcohol and a touch of sweetness, Melsheimer's 2016 Riesling "Handwerk" shows an intense but pure, fruity-mineral nose with notes of milled stones and herbs. Round and juicy, with intense fruit and creamy texture, it is structured by fine, ripe acidity that takes this balanced wine into a long, delicately salty finish. Very fine grip and tannins here. A gorgeous wine, and not just in this price range. Tasted February 2018.
For more than 200 years, the Melsheimers have been growing grapes in the quaint Mosel town of Reil. With 10 hectares of mostly steep vineyards, all work is done by hand, and a large majority of the vineyards are certified as cultural landscape. Thorsten and his wife Steffi have worked organically since 1995, and focus exclusively on Riesling, a rarity in the Mosel. The main vineyard Thorsten focuses on is the Mulay-Hofberg, where the slate-dominated soil is maintained in terraced plots, along with extremely steep pitches. All of the work is done by hand, and only traditional methods are used in the cellar.
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.