Alcohol: 8,5%
Grape(s): Riesling
Localization: Mosel, Germany
Tasting notes: Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spätlese is still delicately reduced at first before it starts to reveal its gorgeous nose of almond cream, pineapple, coconut cream, orange blossom, and floral elements. The wine proves superbly balanced and beautifully refined as a crisp acidity brings freshness, intensity and focus to the palate. The wine proves elegantly spicy and smoky in the long and mouthwatering finish. This Spätlese is a great success!
93 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: The 2017 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spätlese is fine and flinty on the highly elegant and beautifully slatey nose with its discreet and refined flinty aromas. Salty-piquant and fresh on the palate, this Spätlese has a lot of elegance, charm and finesse and is quite creamy textured on the finish. This is a crystalline Riesling, and its finish is crunchy, fresh and piquant, with a creamy texture and good tension but also a frisky and serious character. You can enjoy the wine today, but cellaring makes much more sense for now.
The Domain: This estate has been under the direction of Manfred Prum (grandson of Joh. Jos. Prum’s eponymous founder) since 1969, and scarcely needs much introduction to Riesling lovers, having already become a Mosel icon during the nearly five decades during which its namesake’s son Sebastien was in charge. Katharina Prum has been active alongside her father since early in the new millennium, and the two of them perpetuate a house style that has itself become a Mosel archetype: wines of delicacy and restrained sweetness, often strongly marked in youth by yeasty and otherwise fermentative aromas, and tingling with dissolved CO2. Their longevity is legendary, and the Prums personally don’t care to drink their own wines - even the Kabinetts.
The Prüm family has been making wine in Wehlen for over two centuries. The Prüm estate began with Sebastian Alois Prüm, whose brother, Jodocus constructed both the famous Wehlener and Zeltinger sundails (Sonnenuhr). Of his six sons, Mathias married and his son, Johann Josef Prüm (1873-1944) founded the J.J. Prüm estate in 1911. After World War I, in 1920, his son Sebastian began to take a more active role in the operation of the winery. Sebastian set out to produce the highest quality Riesling wines, which later achieved international recognition for their outstanding longevity. After Sebastian’s death in 1969, his son, Dr. Manfred Prüm, began running the estate and continues to maintain an uncompromising standard in quality winemaking. J.J. Prüm wines are among the most exciting and delicious Riesling wines of the Middle Mosel. Prüm wines have a reputation for being long-lived because if their slow development. Dr. Prüm suggests even his Kabinett can be cellared for up to 5 years. Prüm wines possess full-flavored pure fruit and piquant spiciness that express the true characteristics of Mosel wines.
