2019 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Trocken GG, Selbach-Oster

The Selbach family’s heritage in the wine business dates to 1660: Selbach’s ancestors shipped wines down the Mosel in their own ships, the wine carried in oak barrels made by cooper Matthias Oster, the great-grandfather on the paternal side of the family. Thus, the winery developed as both a top estate producing some of the region’s best wine, and also as a négociant and brokerage firm, consolidating the production of smaller growers.

Today Johannes Selbach and his wife Barbara, with the increasing help of son Sebastian and daughter Hannah, manage their vineyards and winery with passion and respect for the estate’s long held traditions. 55% of their 24 hectares of vines are on their original rootstocks, in Zeltinger Himmelreich, Schlossberg, and Sonnenuhr; Wehlener Sonnenuhr; and, Graacher Himmelreich and Domprobst. These vineyards of weathered Devonian slate are on a steep, contiguous slope facing south-south west and represent some of the most prestigious sites in all of the Middle Mosel, in fact 85% of the Selbach’s vines are on steep slopes.

In the winery, the Selbachs aim to bring out the purity of fruit. Settling of the must is done by gravity, without the help of enzymes. Fermentation is natural, cool and slow and there is substantial lees contact to create extra texture. The ferment takes place in a mix of traditional old oak foudre and stainless steel. The wines are unfined. The estate produces both traditional Prädikat wines and intensely sweet botrytised wines but their main focus is shifting towards Trocken styles and Großes Gewächs. This is classic, intensely mineral Mosel Riesling, reflecting the minerality of those blue slate soils and perfectly expressing each vintage’s unique character.