Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Selbach himself is convinced it will be more impressive after a few years of shedding youthful fat. Selbach's block-harvested, tank-raised 2009 Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Anrecht superbly showcases what he considers the sweetest spot in the Himmelreich Einzellage, here picked in mid-November. Peach, pear, and papaya exhibit the ripe concentration and supportive sweetness of a typical Selbach Auslese. The sense of both tropical and northerly fruit essences here is accentuated by the wine's creaminess of texture and honeyed glaze on the one hand and its glorious persistence of bright fresh fruit and tartly chewy fruit skin on the other. But then, diverse levels of ripeness are essentially what picking en bloc is designed to achieve. This displays palpable density yet irrepressible lift, finishing with luscious, lip-smacking persistence, encompassing saliva-inducing salinity and vivid intimations of wet stone. I expect it to reward your attention for the next 20-25 years. And what was Selbach thinking when he priced this gem? It ends up representing absurd value!
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Wine Spectator
A mineral aroma leads into elegant, refined flavors of mango, apricot and ripe peach, with hints of marmalade. Offers well-defined notes of ginger as well, with a long, cream- and spiced-filled finish. Best from 2014 through 2035.
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.