Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese White Capsule
⏳ wine.drinking_window
Extremely long-lived; typically best enjoyed 10 to 30 years from the vintage, though exceptional vintages can cellar well beyond this.
🍽️ wine.food_pairings
Pan-seared sea scallops with a citrus-butter sauce, roasted pork belly with crackling, or classic Alsatian choucroute garnie.
✨ wine.spec_sheet
Markus Molitor's Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese White Capsule is a masterclass in Mosel tension, where rich, late-harvest fruit meets bone-dry precision. In Molitor's unique color-coding system, the white capsule denotes a dry style. The wine hails from the iconic, precipitously steep Zeltinger Sonnenuhr (Sundial) vineyard, named after the historic sundial erected in 1842 by Jodocus Prüm. Here, ancient, often ungrafted Riesling vines dig deep into weathered blue Devonian slate soils. Molitor employs meticulous hand-harvesting, often in multiple passes, followed by spontaneous fermentation in traditional large oak casks. The result is a monumental dry Riesling that balances intense slate minerality, crystalline acidity, and the concentrated, complex stone fruit character of Auslese-level grapes.
🍾 wine.about_producer
Taking over his family's estate in 1984 at just twenty years old, Markus Molitor set out to restore the Mosel region's historic prestige through uncompromising quality and traditional craftsmanship. Based at the historic Haus Klosterberg in Bernkastel-Kues, the winery meticulously farms steep, slate-rich vineyards across the Mosel and Saar, utilizing extremely late hand-harvesting and spontaneous fermentation in neutral oak Fuder casks. Molitor is globally renowned for his precise, mineral-driven Rieslings—distinguished by white, green, and gold capsules indicating dryness levels—as well as his structured, elegant Spätburgunder. This obsessive dedication to terroir has earned the estate numerous perfect 100-point scores, cementing its status as an icon of German winemaking.