Winemaker Notes
This is one of the greatest vineyards in the Middle Mosel. This precipitously steep, rocky vineyard consistently yields some of the most elegant and sophisticated white wines in the world. Citrus and white peach flavors predominate when the wines are young, turning to a pure expression of the mineral soil as they age.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Wehlener Sonnenuhr GG Alte Reben shows an intense, elegant and coolish bouquet of ripe, bright fruits and flint stones. Lush and round on the palate, this is a supple, salivating, saline and juicy WSU with an intense and substantial finish. This is gorgeous and kind of hedonistic yet with the clear and defined 2021 acidity. Excellent.
Barrel Sample: 94-95 -
Vinous
An exquisitely creamy sense of lemon pervades the nose of the 2021 Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Grosses Gewachs Alte Reben, almost as of lemon posset. With more air, notions of tangerine peel appear with much aromatic appeal. The palate reinforces all this wonderful zestiness shimmering with ripe Amalfi lemon and tangerine. This is marked by a delightful serenity, great concentration and an intense saltiness that, along with the zestiness, makes the palate tingle. Glorious, dry, statuesque.
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James Suckling
Cool and herbal, but well-balanced and elegant this 2021 riesling GG has an appealing silkiness in spite of the lemony acidity. The positive tannins build at the long, structured finish. Although this site has a reputation for wines that show really well early in their life this really needs some time.
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Wine Enthusiast
There’s a light-touch feel to this elegant white, but the palate is quite expressive and nuanced. This is very floral with chamomile, dandelion and hints of lemongrass. There is a tickling sensation on the palate, which makes this vibrant, especially when coupled with the mouthwatering acidity. Beautifully integrated and balanced already, it should be even better in several years.
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.