Winemaker Notes
The extremely steep Brauneberg hillside is an isolated, south-facing slope that is one of the drier vineyards in the area, a great advantage in this wet, northern climate. The Juffer vineyard surrounds the smaller Juffer Sonnenuhr on three sides, extending both upstream and down- stream, as well as above the sundial. This vineyard produces lighter, more delicate wines than the warmer, riper Sonnenuhr vineyard. The late-picked Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Spätlese has fine, forceful fruit in the aroma, a linear focus on the palate and a pure slate finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very bright and energetic Mosel Spatlese with a very wide spectrum of fruit aromas from nectarine to passion fruit via blackberry with a touch of mint. Joyful freshness and vitality, this leaps and bounds over the palate. Super-fresh and long finish with a ton of wet stone minerality. Excellent aging potential. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Juffer Spätlese is greenish on the coolish and flinty/earthy/mineral nose that shows lemon leaf and lime juice aromas and shows a just-ripe character. Very elegant and refined on the palate, this is a juicy, savory and saline Spätlese with laser beam acidity. This will be gorgeous to drink in 10 or 15 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Intense aromas and flavors of pineapple, lemon preserve, apricot and wet stone are exuberant in this beautifully integrated version. The silky texture and vibrant profile add to the intrigue, while its nicely delineated finish smells like the morning dew in the slate-rich vineyards.
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.