Skip to content
Buy any 6 bottles and save 5%. Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
Buy any 6 bottles and save 5%. Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
2019 Wehlener Sonnenuhr “Im Laychen” Grosses Gewächs Réserve Alte Reben Riesling, Dr Loosen

2019 Wehlener Sonnenuhr “Im Laychen” Grosses Gewächs Réserve Alte Reben Riesling, Dr Loosen

Mosel, Germany

Slate & Time

Graceful, layered and extraordinarily refined, this is dry Mosel Riesling taken to another level through ancient vines and extended maturation. White peach, lemon peel and ripe stone fruit sit alongside chamomile, dried meadow flowers and delicate herbs, while a deep seam of flint and crushed blue slate runs beneath everything. There is impressive concentration, but the wine never loses the ethereal elegance that makes Wehlener Sonnenuhr so distinctive.

The palate is silky and expansive, combining ripe citrus and stone fruit with fine acidity, saline minerality and an almost weightless sense of precision. Twenty-four months on the full lees in traditional oak fuder gives remarkable texture and depth, while prolonged bottle ageing has allowed the elements to knit together beautifully. The finish is extraordinarily persistent, herbal, stony and laser-focused. This is a profound, mature dry Riesling that still has years of development ahead of it.

For when: Only something genuinely exceptional will do, but you still want elegance rather than excess.

Pairs with: Roast turbot, lobster, scallops, grilled langoustines, roast chicken, pork tenderloin, veal, mushroom dishes, lightly spiced Asian food, mature Comté or simply a large glass and plenty of time.

Wehlener Sonnenuhr, the Sundial of Wehlen, is one of the Middle Mosel’s great historic vineyards, but Im Laychen makes this bottling even more specific. The name can be translated as the “little slate vineyard”, a particular parcel where the blue-slate bedrock lies exceptionally close to the surface. There is almost no conventional topsoil, so the roots penetrate deep through fractures in the rock. Dr Loosen’s vines here are at least 130 years old, ungrafted and among the oldest vines the estate possesses in Wehlen.

The famous sundial overlooking Wehlen was erected in 1842 by Jodocus Prüm, an ancestor of the Loosen family. The vineyard’s steep exposure, extraordinary drainage and heat-retaining blue slate help Riesling achieve ripeness while retaining the bright acidity and mineral character for which the site is celebrated.

Whats in the bottle
Riesling 100%

Notable Awards
99 Points, James Suckling

£89.95 - £89.95
£89.95
£89.95 - £89.95
£89.95
Availability:
In stock

Dr Loosen is one of the defining estates of the Mosel and one of the producers most closely associated with the modern international reputation of German Riesling. The Loosen family has owned vineyards in the region for more than 200 years, with Ernst “Erni” Loosen taking control of the estate in 1988.

He inherited an exceptional collection of steep vineyards containing very old, frequently ungrafted Riesling vines. Rather than masking the differences between sites, the estate places vineyard character at the centre of its approach, using careful selection, low-intervention cellar work and extended maturation to allow each site to express itself clearly.

Dr Loosen has been a member of the VDP since 1993, and several of its vineyards rank among the Middle Mosel’s historic great sites. Wehlener Sonnenuhr is particularly associated with delicacy, perfume and fine mineral definition, while vineyards such as Ürziger Würzgarten and Erdener Prälat show very different expressions of Mosel Riesling.

For customers, the Wehlener Sonnenuhr GG Alte Reben represents the dry, serious side of Dr Loosen: ancient vines, one of the Mosel’s great terroirs and a style built around precision, mineral character and longevity rather than sweetness.

The 2019 Im Laychen Réserve comes from a particularly prized parcel within Wehlener Sonnenuhr. The vines are at least 130 years old, ungrafted and on their original roots, growing in extremely shallow soils where fractured blue slate sits close to the surface.

Poor flowering in these ancient vines can result in millerandage, producing small berries with a high skin-to-juice ratio. The looser bunches improve airflow and the thicker skins can reduce susceptibility to botrytis, helping healthy fruit remain on the vine through a long ripening period.

The grapes were hand harvested and carefully selected, then left overnight on their skins before pressing. The short period of skin contact was used to help integrate Riesling’s naturally high acidity and build additional texture.

After gentle pressing, the juice was transferred to traditional German oak fuder of 1,000 and 3,000 litres. Fermentation occurred spontaneously with wild yeasts under temperature-controlled conditions. Following fermentation, the wine remained in fuder on its full lees for 24 months without bâtonnage.

The linked technical sheet specifies that the wine was then lightly filtered, bottled and cellared for a further three years before release. Dr Loosen’s broader current description of its GG Réserve programme refers to extended bottle maturation after the 24 months in fuder; for this particular UK technical sheet, I would use the specific three-year figure given for the 2019 wine.

The 2019 growing season began with a warm spring and developed into a hot summer, requiring careful canopy management. Rain in August brought relief, followed by warm September days and cool nights that encouraged flavour concentration while maintaining acidity. The harvested grapes were reported to be in excellent condition.

At 12.5% alcohol and 8.7 g/L residual sugar, the finished wine remains firmly dry in style. Its remarkable combination of ancient-vine concentration, prolonged lees maturation and the naturally fine structure of Wehlener Sonnenuhr gives it both immediate complexity and considerable potential for further development.