Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Still a little funky from the wild ferment, but there are also beautiful notes of floras and ripe white peaches. Very elegant and polished with a super vibrant finish that makes you reach out for the glass again. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
This textbook Mosel kabinett shows beautiful harmony and finesse, with very pure floral, passion fruit and slate notes that unfold expressively midpalate, all backed by vibrant and well-integrated acidity, echoing on the finish. Drink now through 2026. 500 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett (AP 22 17) is bright, deep, firm and flinty on the nose, which is still a bit reductive in early March 2018. Pure, fine and piquant on the palate, this is a light and very delicate Kabinett with a salty-piquant, lush finish that reveals ripe stone fruit and tropical fruit flavors.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lot of citrus, sweet lime, and mint emerge from the 2016 Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett, which is certainly a good value at the price. Medium-bodied, pure, beautifully balanced, with an off-dry, juicy style on the palate, it’s a joy to drink.
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.