Winemaker Notes
This Auslese is still less developed compared to theSpätlese, but will improve remarkably when opening further in the course of the next years. Great aging potential.
Serve this refreshing wine slightly chilled, as an apéritif or, especially when more mature, in combination with seafood and poultry, but also red meat and even fresh fruits. It is also an exciting match for Western style or Asian and Pacific Rim cuisine.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Aromas of rose, slate and smoke segue into lime and peach flavors in this elegant, stately white. It's crisp and transparent, with precise balance and a classic Mosel profile. Long, mouthwatering finish. Drink now through 2035.
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Wine Enthusiast
Reeks of heating oil at first, then slowly opens to reveal hints of honey, apple adn ctirus. This is a sweet but not overdone Auslese, with a slightly creamy textrue adn layers of ripe stone fruit that linger and pick up minerally overtones on the lengthy finish.
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.