Product information

Markus Molitor Bernkastler Lay Auslese** 2019

Riesling from Mosel, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany

$111

$106ea in any 3+
$101ea in any 6+
Closure: Cork
White Cap - Dry

Description

“The lime-green-golden 2019 Bernkasteler Lay Auslese ** (White Capsule) is deep, intense and concentrated yet elegant and still precise and flinty on the nose. The attack on the palate is stunningly young and vital before the elegant and crystalline wine reveals its complexity and inner power. This is a tightly structured, very digestible and still edgy Auslese that needs another 5-6 years or so to settle and shine. This 2019 is enormously salty on the finish and highly promising.”

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate

Molitor’s white capsule indicates a classically fermented dry wine. Explore Molitor’s colour code, different to the German Pradikat system here.

In stock

Check out all of the wines by Markus Molitor

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

A true master of the Mosel, Markus Molitor’s diverse range of wines provides insight into the region’s widely differing vineyards and how these steep, slate slopes have such a profound effect on the wines produced.

Motivated by the region’s fascinating history – its meteoric rise to popularity at the end of the nineteenth century, and its demise during World War II and the years that followed – has significantly informed his viticultural ambitions. (Markus outlines the compelling and tumultuous history of the Mosel, characterised by soaring highs and sweet ‘n cheap lows, in a 2020 article for Fine + Rare. Well worth a read).

Here Molitor uses single-stake pruning system, where each vine is trained to its own, individual post and the canes are bend into a circular shape and tied to the stake. This is a tradition training method on the steep vineyards of the Mosel and allows for higher density plantings with easy movement between vines.

 

Through his winegrowing, Markus aims to “restore the wines of the Mosel valley to their former glory by producing unmistakable Riesling wines true to their individual vineyard identity.” He avoids using the traditional categories to indicate ‘dryness’ in Riesling, preferring to express the inherent harmony of taste and balance that cannot be determined solely by residual sugar content and total acidity. This means that, as long the wine is balanced, traditionally ‘sweet’ categories like  Spätlese or Auslese can express a range of dryness levels; where a wine falls on this scale is indicated by capsule colour – white, green or gold. For more detail on Molitor’s sweetness philosophy, see the Molitor Colour Code below.

Ultimately, the wines speak for themselves. They are bold and charcterful, beautifully capturing the interplay of terroir, texture and a fruit while retaining a distinctive Mosel-ness.

The Molitor Colour Code

Molitor avoids using the traditional categories to indicate ‘dryness’ in Riesling. He claims his “focus is on the harmonious taste and balance of the wine which cannot be determined solely by analysis of residual sugar content and total acidity”. Instead, the colour of the capsule indicates the style and respective flavour profile of his Rieslings: white represents classically fermented wines; green is feinherb, the historical medium-dry style of Mosel wines; gold indicates richer, nobly sweet wines, including berry-selection styles Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese.

About Markus Molitor

Markus Molitor has been working in the vineyards since he was ten years old; when his father Werner lost his arm in an accident, he literally became his right-hand man. “He needed support and help in the vineyard and cellar – so I became his right hand.” He spent every spare minute on the estate, acquiring an intimate knowledge of viticulture and winemaking. This experience also ignited in him a passion that extends beyond the winery and vineyards to the rich history and culture of the Mosel.

The town of Bernkastel. Photo courtesy of Chris Marmann

Since taking over the reins of the family company in 1984, he has grown the Mosel-based estate from 1.5ha to 120, comprising many top Grand Cru sites on the steep slopes of the Middle Mosel and further south in Saar region. More impressive still, Markus works numerous parcels of un-grafted vines – veritable living antiques! – with many aged 100 years old or more.

One of the largest family-owned vineyards in the region, every wine is still produced organically, without fining or industrial yeasts, offering a true taste of German terroir. For Markus the goal has always been to produce very distinct expressions of each of the vineyard sites dotted throughout the Mosel. “We try to express each individual character of vineyard in combination with each quality level, style and vintage.”

In the Vineyard

The Mosel wine region is defined by its virtually vertical vineyards and slate soils. These stunning but unforgiving environments require that most of the vineyard work is done by hand. Harvest all of the vineyards by hand only to have the possibility of selecting each single berry in its own category. This work and time-intense process leads to approx. 80 to 90 different wines per vintage, but each one absolutely unique in its composition and taste.

They may look red in colour, but these are Riesling grapes! More precisely, these are trockenbeeren – dried berries; grapes shrivelled on the vine to naturally increase sugar levels, often under the influence of botrytis. They are used to produce Prädikat wines like Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. Produced only in exceptional vintages, they are prized for their rarity, richness and complexity.

“There are several advantages of steep slopes in comparison to flat vineyards. First of all, the sun exposure: if the steep slope is south facing, the sun moves around each single vine from morning to evening. Secondly, the aeration is better because the winds blow down the slopes – the risk of frost is minimised, the heat as well as the humidity are carried away. During the Indian summer prior to harvest, the temperatures may be quite warm during the day. The valley is narrow, so the heat is trapped in the valley. During the nights, the cold winds from the Eifel and Hunsrueck hills above fall down the steep slopes. These changes of warm and cool air contribute a lot to the formation of the unique Mosel-aromas in the Rieslings. Depending on the steepness and therefore the angle of incidence, the sunlight is reflected by the river in the vineyard and afterwards stored by the slate soil. It is the combination of all these points that leads to the unique effects of the steep slopes in our valley along with the interaction of the slate soils with the old vines.”

Markus Molitor

All these points lead to an incomparable structure and great texture in the wine. The balance of all components, mineral, acidity, fruitiness and sweetness is always given and inimitable.

In the Winery

The old 3-storey vaulted cellar located in Wehlener, carved in slate, offers an optimal, permanently cool climate with high humidity, allowing the wines to ferment very slowly and naturally. Following centuries-old tradition, the wines ferment spontaneously and are aged in wooden barrels without the use of fining agents, enzymes, additional yeasts and other aids. The wines then age on their fine lees for months, endowing them with greater lustre, elegance and fullness.

The German System

Wow, even the most dedicated wine geek often has trouble getting their head around the German naming systems, something they’ve been working on simplifying!

When it comes to wines containing some level of grape sugar, the Germans have a classification that dictates ranges of sugar levels grapes for a specific wine must be picked at, in essence establishing a framework for the ripeness, amount of Bortytis and shrivel / raisoning the fruit should have when picked. The amount of grape sugar left in the wine after it has fermented, is up to the maker.

All of this super detailed information is interesting to know.

At the end of the day the most important thing is whether the wine meets those standard criteria for good wine. During Riesling Down Under it was great to hear winemakers from around the world, all saying they don’t care much for the numbers, they picked their fruit on flavour and made their wines to achieve balance and harmony.

The following is courtesy of Dr Loosen, who sums up German Riesling styles with sweetness beautifully

The Versatility of Riesling

Riesling is one of the few grapes that is capable of producing a complete spectrum of wine styles, from bone dry to lusciously sweet. The key to maintaining top quality throughout this broad range lies in a rigorous selection process. As the harvest progresses, we make daily decisions about each vineyard parcel based on the maturity of the fruit and the prevailing weather conditions. Healthy grapes are painstakingly separated from botrytis-affected fruit, and the various selections are vinified separately.

Classic Wines with Sweetness

Our traditional wines, with residual sweetness, are selected from the harvest according to their ripeness and flavour development. The finest lots from our classified vineyards are bottled with their corresponding single-vineyard name and ripeness (Prädikat) level. For the non-botrytis wines, there are two Prädikat levels, Kabinett and Spätlese.

Beyond the lightly sweet Kabinett and Spätlese bottlings, made without botrytis, there are three Prädikat levels of botrytis-selection wines that get progressively sweeter: Auslese, Beerenauslese [berry selection] and Trockenbeerenauslese [dried berry selection]. In addition, when vintage conditions allow it, we produce Eiswein from grapes that have frozen on the vine.

The picture from Dr Loosen above is a great illustration of the different conditions of grapes at harvest and the styles they are destined to make. You can see the level of Botrytis and shrivel / raisining increasing as we move through the styles from Kabinett to Trockenbeerenauslese. The Botrytis or Noble Rot, imparts wonderful flavours and textures to the wine, and is to be revered like the blue moulds of Rocquefort and the washed rind cheeses of Munster in Alsace, appropriately both cheeses marry beautifully with a glass of Riesling.

Note how the buckets are colour coded according to the end destination of the fruit and how little of the Trockenbeerenauslese is produced. The skill of pickers and willingness to pass through the vineyard several times to ensure all grapes are picked at the optimal time is the key to success.

The freshest style is Kabinett and as you move up the scale you’ll see additional complexity added by botrytis and other winemaking influences in addition to greater levels of sweetness. Each style whether Kabinett or Eiswein being perfect for consumption on different occasions with different foods. The Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and, Eiswein being exceptional dessert wines. Kabinett and Spätlese being suited to table wine consumption. The standard line for the German’s being that where the English offer tea to guests in the afternoon the German’s offer Kabinett or Spätlese wines, more akin to a table wine. That said I devoured a Wagner-Stemple Kabinett, with pasta and cheese on a 38°C day in Melbourne, perfection! Auslese sitting on either side depending on the style the estate makes.

This intense sorting process is beautifully articulated by Ernie Loosen from 2min 25sec in the vineyard below.

The 2019 Vintage at Markus Molitor

After a stunning 2018 vintage, 2019 is another top vintage for Markus Molitor, who holds numerous grand cru sites in the Middle Mosel between Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel plus, just recently, the Thörnicher Ritsch as well as in the Saar Valley. Molitor’s 2019 Rieslings are bright, precise, laser-sharp and super clear. They exhibit ripe and aromatic fruit and precise terroir flavors that make all the wines incredibly distinctive. You can’t mix up the sites, if you are trained enough, and certainly you also can’t mix up the predicates, which are clearly defined, even though a classic Kabinett in modern times is always a downgraded Spätlese or even Auslese, if the category is related to must weight and not to style alone. Only a few of the top three-starred 2019 Auslesen contain botrytized grapes, and even the Beerenauslesen are crystalline clear and piquant and by far not as rich and sweet as this category is often interpreted.

After a mild and wet winter, warm, dry and sunny weather in April ensured rapid budding of the vines. And excellent conditions for flowering in early to mid-June were in place, setting the stage for a good vintage.

The friendly spring weather was followed by one of the warmest summers on record, with abundant sunshine hours and extremely low rainfall. Due to the low level of pruning (low yields) as well as the dense planting of the plots (deep rooting), Molitor reports that “the long drought during the summer could not harm the ripening process of the grapes. Various vineyards in our extensive portfolio of sites were also favored by rains and were thus able to show an excellent water balance in the soil for this year of low rainfall.”

Occasional sunburn on the berries had to be accepted as a natural yield reduction, and ample rainfall at the end of July and beginning of August came at just the right time to support and advance the ripening phase of the grapes.”

The development of the acid structure and must weights raised hopes for a classic Mosel Riesling vintage,” Molitor reports. “The combination of warm, sunny days and cool nights at the beginning of fall in mid-September provided ideal harvest conditions and resulted in excellent aroma development in the berries. At this point, we were able to harvest physiologically ripe, healthy grapes with high extract levels and immense concentration for our dry and off-dry wines.”

This was followed at the beginning of October by a “warm, humid weather period,” which resulted in “highly ripe grape material being attacked by botrytis,” which was “ideal for our noble sweet specialties.”

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate

Where in the World is Markus Molitor?

Markus Molitor owns vineyards throughout the Mosel and the Saar with the majority of his production coming from the middle-Mosel.

Markus Molitor’s vineyards in the Middle-Mosel. Click to enlarge.

The Mosel River Valley is probably the most famous and arguably the most admired wine region in Germany. In its wider sense, it includes the adjacent Saar and Rüwer (hence Mosel-Saar-Rüwer), both tributaries of the Mosel River, however, it is the middle Mosel (mittelmosel), in particular between and including the towns of Bernkastel-Kues and Erden that the most brilliant wines tend to be produced. Bernkastel, Grach, Wehlen, and Zeltingen are some of the most famous wine towns here.

You can see just how incredibly steep the vineyards of the Mosel can be and how dominant the slate rock is, often driving the root systems meters into the hillside.

The best vineyards of Germany’s Mosel Valley are incredibly steep, south-facing slopes with mineral-rich slate soil and a favourable position near the river. Excellent drainage and the heat-retaining quality of the rocky slate soil also help to produce fully ripe, concentrated wines. The combination of these elements results in racy, mineral-inflected Rieslings that are fruity, crisp and very refreshing to drink.

Map by Fernando Beteta, MS @fernandobeteta on Twitter

 

95+ Points

The lime-green-golden 2019 Bernkasteler Lay Auslese ** (White Capsule) is deep, intense and concentrated yet elegant and still precise and flinty on the nose. The attack on the palate is stunningly young and vital before the elegant and crystalline wine reveals its complexity and inner power. This is a tightly structured, very digestible and still edgy Auslese that needs another 5-6 years or so to settle and shine. This 2019 is enormously salty on the finish and highly promising.

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Weingut Markus Molitor, Stadt Wehlen, Germany

Mosel
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Germany