Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Swathes of fresh green herbs and florals refresh tart yellow plum and peach notes in this racy, light-footed Riesling. Juicy stone fruit flavors are accented with long streaks of wax and lanolin that lend density and viscosity to the long, long finish. Gorgeous now, but likely to improve through 2025.
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Wine Spectator
This is filled with red peach, white cherry and ripe apricot flavors, accented by plenty of rich, spicy hints. A racy core of acidity provides support, leading to custardy notes on the rich finish. Drink now through 2040. 300 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale in color and clear and floral on the still reductive nose where white peach, oranges and herbal flavors are displayed, the 2013 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese reveals a rich, lush, very juicy and almost creamy textured palate with a nice piquancy. The wine will need a decade or more to receive its final precision. Rating: 91+
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.