Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Saskia Prüm, the fourth generation to lead this estate, took over from her father, Raimond, in 2017. It wasn’t an easy vintage, with hard frosts in the spring knocking yields down by as much as 60 percent, then summer heat waves alternated with heavy rain and hail. And yet she came through with some excellent wines, particularly from the Wehlener Sonnenuhr, where the family farms 15 acres of vines on steeply raked, slate-covered slopes. The concentration of the grapes reads in the wine’s texture, broad and full, the combination of volume and ethereality bringing to mind freshly whipped matcha tea. The flavors echo that contrast, a full range of citrus notes filigreed with aromas of roses and herbs, and profound depths of savory minerality.
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Wine Enthusiast
Angles and curves collide in this intensely stony yet fruity kabinett. Semisweet in style, it's chock-full of concentrated quince, pineapple and grapefruit, but also framed by cool steel and vibrant lemon-lime acidity. A lip-smacking, penetrating sip that's delightful now, it will improve through 2030 and likely hold further still.
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.