2013 Graacher Domprobst, Riesling Auslese*, Selbach-Oster, Mosel
About this WINE
Selbach-Oster
The Selbachs have been cultivating Riesling vines in the Mosel since 1661. Today, Johannes Selbach and his wife Barbara run the estate, now one of the leading producers in the Mittelmosel.
There are 10.6 hectares of vineyards including holdings in Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, and Graacher Domprobst. The grapes are handpicked and then fermented in traditional large oak barrels. The emphasis here is on finesse and purity of fruit, producing supremely elegant Kabinett and Spätlese wines as well as powerful, concentrated Auslese wines.
Mosel
The Mosel wine region in Germany is renowned for its high-quality white wines, especially Riesling. Its unique terroir of steep slopes, slate soils, and cool climate contributes to the wines' distinctive character.
Riesling dominates the vineyard plantings, and the region follows a vineyard classification system based on ripeness levels. Historic vineyards, such as Erdener Prälat and Wehlener Sonnenuhr, produce exceptional wines.
The Mosel offers various styles, from crisp Kabinett and rich dessert wines. The region's wine culture is celebrated through multiple festivals, making it a must-visit destination for wine enthusiasts.
Riesling
Riesling's twin peaks are its intense perfume and its piercing crisp acidity which it manages to retain even at high ripeness levels.
In Germany, Riesling constitutes around 20% of total plantings, yet it is responsible for all its greatest wines. It is planted widely on well-drained, south-facing slate-rich slopes, with the greatest wines coming from the best slopes in the best villages. It produces delicate, racy, nervy and stylish wines that cover a wide spectrum of flavours from steely and bone dry with beautifully scented fruits of apples,apricots, and sometimes peaches, through to the exotically sweet flavours of the great sweet wines.
It is also an important variety in Alsace where it produces slightly earthier, weightier and fuller wines than in Germany. The dry Rieslings can be austere and steely with hints of honey while the Vendages Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles are some of the greatest sweet wines in the world.
It is thanks to the New World that Riesling is enjoying a marked renaissance. In Australia the grape has developed a formidable reputation, delivering lime-sherbet fireworks amid the continental climate of Clare Valley an hour's drive north of Adelaide, while Barossa's Eden Valley is cooler still, producing restrained stony lime examples from the elevated granitic landscape; Tasmania is fast becoming their third Riesling mine, combining cool temperatures with high UV levels to deliver stunning prototypes.
New Zealand shares a similar climate, with Riesling and Pinot Gris neck to neck in their bid to be the next big thing after Sauvignon Blanc; perfectly suited is the South Island's Central Otago, with its granitic soils and continental climate, and the pebbly Brightwater area near Nelson. While Australia's Rieslings tend to be full-bodied & dry, the Kiwis are more inclined to be lighter bodied, more ethereal and sometimes off-dry; Alsace plays Mosel if you like.
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Description
Along with the avant-garde 'Anrecht', the Selbachs also made a more conventional, botrytised Riesling Auslese from their Domprobst vineyard in Graach downstream. The Rieslings of Graach, in the right hands, have a serene elegance about them; perhaps the product of those impossibly steep vineyards packed with chunks of black/blue slate that parodixically give such effortless wines. And such was the late harvest in 2013, that they're packed with complexity too, built up over the season; a wine for the long-haul.
The nose of this standout, 'star' Auslese has an almost salty peach character about; it's beautifully textured, svelte, with such fluidity, immaculate balance, no sense of the 115 grams of residual sugar, refreshed by the 10 grams of acidity! The botrytis evidently 'made' this extraordinary vintage, naturally concentrating all the elements, including the sugars, giving the wine a sublime texture and heavenly finish. Exotic yes, but a racehorse at the same time! Finishes more off-dry than medium!
David Berry Green
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