Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese
⏳ Drinking Window
2023 - 2045
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Spicy Thai or Vietnamese cuisine, slow-roasted pork belly with a sweet soy glaze, and aged blue cheeses or fruit-based tarts.
✨ Technical Specifications
Markus Molitor's Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese is a breathtaking expression of one of the Mosel's most dramatic and legendary vineyards. The Wurzgarten (spice garden) is famous for its steep, amphitheater-like slopes and its unique, iron-rich red volcanic clay and slate soils, which stand in stark contrast to the blue slate found elsewhere in the region. According to local lore, the vineyard earned its name from the wild herbs and spices that naturally grow among the vines, imparting a distinct, exotic, and highly spicy signature to the grapes. Molitor coaxes incredible complexity from these old, ungrafted vines through extremely late harvesting, meticulous hand-sorting, and spontaneous fermentation in traditional large oak Fuder casks. The resulting Spatlese is a masterclass in tension, balancing luscious tropical fruit notes of mango and papaya with a fiery, mineral-driven acidity and a lingering, herbal-spicy finish.
🍾 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.