Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese
⏳ Drinking Window
2020 - 2040
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Spicy Sichuan or Thai cuisine, roasted pork with orchard fruit compote, and washed-rind or aged cheeses.
✨ Technical Specifications
The legendary 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. Under the stewardship of Ernst Loosen, whose family has cultivated these steep slopes for generations, this 100% Riesling Spätlese showcases the unique terroir of weathered blue Devonian slate. The precipitous, south-facing vineyard forces the ancient, own-rooted vines to struggle deep into the rock, imparting a signature flinty minerality. Hand-harvested late in the season, the grapes undergo cool fermentation in traditional oak Fuder casks. The resulting wine is a masterclass in balance, weaving together luscious stone fruit sweetness—like ripe peach and apricot—with a spine of electric, life-giving acidity and delicate floral aromas.
🍾 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.