Winemaker Notes
This is one of a trio of en-bloc harvested single parcels Johannes will introduce at the end of this report. Bearing in mind that the fundamental principle is to wait as long as possible and then pick the whole vineyard in a single pass, it stands to reason that everything in 2018 would be ripe – very ripe. And very clean. Thus the wine is more of-a-piece than usual, and it’s also well up into the Auslese echelon. Indeed this wine is so rich it almost subsumes its charged minerality – almost! If the palate follows the aroma that mineral will emerge, though it may take some years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese Schmitt is deep, fine and complex on the coolish, refreshing, pure and stony nose with its crunchy slate, coolish herbal and even forest notes that enrich the highly refined and elegant Riesling fruit that was picked around the middle of October. Lush, intense and very complex on the palate, this is an energetic, salty-piquant and tensioned grand cru with lingering piquancy and salinity. Absolutely gorgeous and complex. A great vin de terroir. Tasted at the domain in September 2020.
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Wine Spectator
Alluring aromas and flavors of lemon curd, fresh apricot and spicy mineral mark this ripe yet very elegant and slim auslese, which is harmonious and approachable now, but will only improve with time. Shows great length on the mouthwatering finish. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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Wine & Spirits
Johannes Selbach harvests Schmitt in one go rather than making several passes through the vineyard, as is typical in the Mosel today. In the ripe 2018 vintage, the wine is fully Auslese-level sweet, with a silky density of honeyed peach flavor. That fruit wraps gently around a core of acidity that makes the wine feel firm and precise. While it’s not showing a lot of detail yet, it offers lots of pleasure.
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.