Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Eiswein
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2055
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Pungent blue cheeses such as Roquefort, fruit-based tarts and desserts like apple tarte tatin, or enjoyed on its own as a meditative digestif.
✨ Technical Specifications
The Wehlener Sonnenuhr, or 'Sundial of Wehlen,' is one of the Mosel's most iconic vineyards, named after the historic sundial erected in 1842 by Jodocus Prüm to guide vineyard workers. Dr. Loosen's Eiswein from this legendary site is a rare, high-stakes masterpiece. Crafted from 100% Riesling grapes left on the vine until they freeze solid—requiring temperatures of at least -7°C (19°F)—the grapes are harvested in the freezing dark of early morning and pressed immediately. This process leaves the water behind as ice, yielding a highly concentrated, nectar-like juice. The steep, blue Devonian slate soils of the Sonnenuhr infuse the wine with a distinct stony minerality, balancing the luscious sweetness with a piercing, vibrant acidity that prevents it from ever feeling heavy.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Dr. Loosen stands as one of the preeminent global ambassadors of Germany's Mittelmosel. Under family ownership for more than two centuries, the estate experienced an epochal renaissance after Ernst 'Erni' Loosen assumed leadership in 1988. Loosen immediately implemented draconian yield restrictions, prohibited chemical fertilizers, and embraced spontaneous fermentations in neutral oak Fuder casks, frequently practicing extended lees contact. The domaine's strength rests in its holdings of ancient, ungrafted vines—many over a century old—clinging to perilous, south-facing slate amphitheaters. These steep slopes span blue Devonian slate in the Wehlener Sonnenuhr, red volcanic-slate colluvium in the Ürziger Würzgarten, and heat-retaining cliffs in the Erdener Prälat. Dr. Loosen is renowned both for crystalline, classically delicate Prädikat expressions defined by buoyant acidity and low alcohol, and for benchmark dry Grosses Gewächs bottlings that celebrate age-worthy, mineral-driven tension.
🍇 Grapes
100% Riesling