Graacher Himmelreich Riesling TBA 1*
⏳ Drinking Window
2025 - 2065
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roquefort or other high-quality blue cheeses, artisanal fruit tarts (especially apricot or peach), and rich foie gras terrine.
✨ Technical Specifications
Markus Molitor’s Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) 1* is a monument to the extreme viticulture of the Middle Mosel. The 'Himmelreich'—or 'Kingdom of Heaven'—vineyard features steep, south-southwest-facing slopes composed of deep, weathered blue Devonian slate, which imparts a distinctive, crystalline minerality and vibrant acidity to the Riesling grapes. Under the obsessive guidance of Markus Molitor, who revived his family's estate in 1984, grapes are harvested by hand in multiple meticulous passes to select only the most perfectly shriveled, botrytized berries. The '1*' designation signifies a highly refined, elegant expression of TBA, where the intense sweetness is balanced by a piercing, electric acidity. Fermented slowly with native yeasts in neutral oak Fuder casks, this rare nectar represents the pinnacle of Mosel sweet wine craftsmanship, marrying rich honeyed complexity with ethereal lightness.
🍾 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.
🍇 Grapes
100% Riesling