Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese
⏳ Drinking Window
2025 - 2045
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Glazed roasted duck, spicy Sichuan cuisine, or aged blue cheeses.
✨ Technical Specifications
Markus Molitor’s Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese is a breathtaking expression of the Middle Mosel’s steep, slate-laden slopes. Taking over his family's estate in 1984 at just 20 years old, Molitor has become a legendary figure, famed for his uncompromising pursuit of quality and his preservation of traditional Mosel winemaking. The "Himmelreich" (Kingdom of Heaven) vineyard lives up to its celestial name, featuring deep Devonian slate soils that absorb the daytime sun and radiate heat back to the vines. This 100% Riesling is crafted from hand-selected, late-harvested grapes, often touched by noble rot. Fermented slowly with indigenous yeasts in traditional large oak casks, the wine beautifully balances rich, concentrated stone fruit and honeyed complexity with a striking, laser-like slate minerality and vibrant acidity.
🍾 About the Producer
Founded in 1984 when twenty-year-old Markus Molitor assumed control of his family's winemaking legacy, Weingut Markus Molitor has evolved into an undisputed titan of the Mosel. Based at Haus Klosterberg, Molitor manages over 100 hectares encompassing premier steep-slope crus along both the Middle Mosel and Saar, including Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Ürziger Würzgarten, Erdener Prälat, and Scharzhofberg. Viticulture is strictly manual on precipitous gradients of weathered Devonian blue, red, and grey slate. Molitor pursues an uncompromising philosophy centered on sustainable farming, late selective harvesting, native yeast fermentation, and prolonged aging on fine lees in traditional wooden Fuders carved into subterranean slate cellars. Renowned for its singular capsule coding system—white indicating dry, green denoting feinherb (off-dry), and gold designating noble sweet expressions, often tiered with asterisks—the estate crafts crystalline, hyper-mineral Rieslings of monumental depth and aging potential, alongside site-expressive Pinot Noir and Weissburgunder.