Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese (White Capsule)
⏳ Drinking Window
2022 - 2038
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Pairs beautifully with roasted pork belly, spicy Thai or Sichuan cuisine, and rich seafood dishes such as pan-seared scallops with ginger.
✨ Technical Specifications
Markus Molitor’s Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese (White Capsule) is a masterclass in Mosel tension, showcasing the legendary 'spice garden' vineyard of Urzig. Unlike the blue slate found throughout most of the Middle Mosel, the Wurzgarten is defined by its striking red volcanic soil and iron-rich slate, which imparts a distinctly exotic, wild-berry, and spicy character to the Riesling grape. Molitor’s unique color-coded capsule system designates this 'White Capsule' bottling as a dry style, despite the late-harvest richness implied by the Spatlese classification. Harvested from extremely steep, often ungrafted old vines, the grapes undergo spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts in large, neutral oak casks. This traditional, low-intervention approach preserves the vibrant acidity and intense mineral core of the terroir, resulting in a dry Riesling of extraordinary depth, texture, and aromatic complexity.
🍾 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