Winemaker Notes
Despite its still youthful freshness, this rich and at the same time elegant Spätlese (literally: "late-harvest")from the famous Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard shows a fine fruity, floral Riesling characteristic and an underlying hint of mineral from the grey Devonian slate soil.
Serve this refreshing wine slightly chilled! Enjoy it just by itself, if young with spicy dishes and - especially when more matured - in combination with seafood or poultry, but also red meat.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Prum 2008 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese – as with the corresponding Kabinett – is aromatically more marked by the residues of fermentation than are its immediate siblings. Hints of mango, quince, and musk added to the more predictable apple, vanilla, and liquid floral perfume and lend this an exotic touch, while its mineral side is dominated by striking salinity that enhances the savory stimulation of a long finish as well as offering a fascinating foil to the wine’s creaminess of texture and sheer ripeness. And while the nose needs to clear up here, the palate displays a remarkable sense of clarity to a wealth of flowers and spices. The wine seems to coat the palate while hovering above it, to seduce without touching. This should put on quite a show over the next 30 or more years.
93+
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Wine & Spirits
This houses its ripe fruit in a delicate fram, feeling energetic and impecably harmonious. The aromas of whipe peach and citrus are saturated with slatiness, turning floral on the long 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.