Winemaker Notes
The Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard has become intrinsically attached to the name of Joh. Jos. Prüm. The wines of the Wehlener Sonnenuhr possess excellent structure, show beautiful, ripe aromas and flavors (typically stone fruits), a fine minerality, and great depth and length. After having been aged for some years, the harmony, finesse and expression of these wines is unique.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Staggering aromatic complexity with everything from mandarin orange through fresh mint to passion fruit and mangosteen. Super-succulent yet super-refined and precise, this must be tasted to be believed. Just keeps pumping out the fruit aromas at the super-long finish, where the passion fruit freshness is totally breathtaking.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese (Gold Capsule) is incredibly clear and precise on the nose, and if there was any botrytis here—and there was, otherwise you wouldn't get this concentration and delicate raisin aroma—it was perfect and came at the perfect moment. This is a kind of quintessence of the Sonnenuhr, and saying this, it makes me long for pure, freshly caught anchovies. On the palate, this is a therapeutic, round, savory and straightaway stimulating Auslese with so much vitality and savoriness, and it finishes with a tight and sustainable mineral structure that makes this a great vin de terroir that can be aged for decades. It is crystal clear and doesn't even taste sweet due to its piquancy and salinity.
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Wine Spectator
Pretty white flower and steeped tea notes infuse a base of honeyed apple and warm peach in this lush, richly textured wine. The finish is driven by candied citrus and dried herbs, with lanolin, vanilla and racy salted-lemon acidity. Drink now through 2040.
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.