Winemaker Notes
The famous “Sundial” vineyard, in the village of Wehlen, produces the quintessential Mosel style of Riesling: delicate and refined, with racy minerality and endless charm. The distinctively light, blue slate soil gives the wines extraordinary finesse, incomparable purity of fruit and an exquisitely graceful finish. The extended maturation of the Wehlener Sonnenuhr GGR adds an extra dimension of complexity and depth to the wine’s characteristically fine, focused structure.The Wehlener Sonnenuhr GGR is selected from a parcel of their very oldest vines, some of which exceed 130 years old.This parcel bears the original Gewann (lieu dît) name of Im Laychen, which is a dialect reference to the slate soil (“in the little slate vineyard”).
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The fantastically deep nose of white peaches and white flowers pulls you into this extremely structured and concentrated dry Mosel riesling that nonetheless has a terrific sensuality. Extremely long and compact finish with great precision.
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.