Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Auslese ** Gold Capsule
⏳ Drinking Window
2025 - 2048
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Blue cheeses such as Roquefort, rich duck liver pâté, and fruit-based desserts like apple tarte tatin.
✨ Technical Specifications
Crafted by the visionary Markus Molitor, who took over his family winery in 1984 with a mission to revive the golden age of Mosel Riesling, this Auslese ** Gold Capsule is a monument to the steep, slate-laden slopes of the Zeltinger Himmelreich ('Kingdom of Heaven') vineyard. Composed of 100% Riesling, the wine benefits from the vineyard's fine Devonian blue slate soils and optimal south-southwest exposure. Molitor's meticulous hand-selection of botrytised grapes, marked by the two-star (**) designation for exceptional concentration and the Gold Capsule denoting a noble sweet style, results in a wine of breathtaking complexity. Fermented slowly with wild yeasts in neutral oak Fuder casks, it seamlessly marries luscious, honeyed tropical fruit with a piercing, slatey minerality and vibrant acidity that defines the historic Mosel style.
🍾 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.