Off Dry

Product information

Selbach Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Feinherb ‘Ur’ Alte Reben 2019

Riesling from Mosel, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany

$102

$97ea in any 3+
$92ea in any 6+
Closure: Screw Cap

Description

“Barely off-dry wine (with 20 g/l of residual sugar) made from clean fruit harvested in a parcel planted with century-old un-grafted vines situated in the prime Class I Lieu-Dit Kackert, and which formerly belonged the von Schorlemer Estate. It offers a beautifully aromatic yet smoky and primary nose of freshly cut herbs, yellow peach, candied grapefruit, almond cream, and apricot blossom. The wine coats the palate with juicy ripe fruits underpinned by some zesty and spicy acidity and leaves one with an almost dry rather than off-dry tasting feel in the intense finish full of presence. The after-taste is full of spices and is hugely sappy and has immense length. […] certainly one of the finest we have ever tasted in its genre!”

Jean Fish and David Rayer, Mosel Fine Wines

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Check out all of the wines by Selbach Oster

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Before we get into why this wine is so yummy, here are a few handy terms to help you decipher the somewhat confusing German labelling system.

Feinherb is a traditional term that indicates quality and has been permitted on German wine labels since 2000. There is no strict definition, nor is it legally defined, however many growers use it for wines that are off-dry. Feinherb is often used in place of the less popular designation ‘halbtrocken’, as well as for wines that are slightly sweeter than regulations dictate for halbtrockens.

Halbtrocken is a German term meaning “half-dry”. It designates wines that have between 5 and 18 g/l of residual sugar depending on the total acidity.The term is considered outdated and is used with declining frequency.


“Great Mosel Kabinett should be like drinking cool spring water; thirst quenching and delicious.” says Johannes Selbach. Mosel Rieslings have a balance which should be found in dry wines as well as the sweet. It is this tension between acidity, fruit and minerality which is Riesling’s unique and defining character.

Johannes explains “I personally prefer, like my late father and grandfather, less sweetness in ‘sweet’ wines, and love a firm texture that I would describe as ‘crunch’; like when you bite into a ripe fruit with firm skin and flesh. Hence we are making more fruity wines than obviously ‘sweet’ wines.” The sweetness is that of biting into perfectly ripe fruit, where you have the combination of juiciness and mouth-watering acidity at the same time, like biting into a perfectly ripe apple (Kabinett), peach and apricot (Spätlese) or of ripe tropical fruit (Auslese). Clean Botrytis will add elements of honey and smokiness to good Mosel Riesling. Riesling, regardless of style, should have a mineral core and acid backbone which are the structure, the spine and bones of the wine, supporting the fruit components.

Compared to Richter’s wines, Oster’s are definitely an edge drier.

About Selbach Oster

Family Selbach-Oster have been wine growers in the middle-Mosel for 400 years. They own 23 hectares in and around the beautiful village of Zeltingen, 98% which is planted to Riesling. They are authentic Mosel gemstones that are without question totally delicious. The vineyards are farmed organically and this philosophy extends to the winery with natural yeasts and a hands-off approach. Grapes are picked by hand and fermentation is in large format oak vessels. Selbach wines are true characters. Wines with structure, wines that display their heritage, rooted deep
into the slate rock like the old vines themselves – many of which are still on their own vinifera roots and indelibly shaped by their unique terroir. They age beautifully for many years and gain complexity as they age. Selbach-Oster produces classic Mosel Riesling flavor and true complexity while displaying clarity, minerality and precision.

In the Vineyard

In the Winery

Selbach-Oster Rieslings are not “Zeitgeist”-trendy wines that change according to the whims of fashion. Nor are they “made” according to a recipe. Though they are deeply delicious, they do not seek to “seduce” with short-term exotic aromas from specially cultured yeasts, aromatic enzymes or ice-cold fermentations. They are true characters, wines with structure, wines that display their heritage, rooted deep into the slate rock like our old vines – many of which are still on their own vitis vinifera roots.

Shaped by their unique terroir, our wines come with their own original characteristics, which we strive to preserve and not to alter. They will age beautifully for many years and gain complexity. They present a wide variety of aromas, depth of flavor and true complexity while also showing clarity and minerality.

Peach, apricot, apple, as well as citrus fruit and herbs are typical features of the aroma of our young and dry wines. Our delicately and subtley sweet wines show nuances of quince and tropical fruit, and the ripest of them will display honey and raisin flavors, often backed by a touch of salty minerality, and always balanced by crunchy acidity.

These wines are long lived and develop additional complexity through secondary and tertiary aromas that enrich the taste spectrum.

Grapes are gently pressed at low pressure; the juice settles by gravity and is then fermented in naturally cool cellars at low temperatures, predominantly in traditional oak Fuder with wild yeasts.

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 Selbach Oster

According to Jean Fisch and David Rayer from Mosel Fine Wines the 2019 “is an epic vintage at the top, and this thanks to not excessive Oechsle degrees, bright and ripe flavors, and impeccable sweetness-acidity balance.” For more detail on Selbach Oster’s 2019 vintage, read Stephan Reinhardt’s report below.

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate

Johannes Selbach describes both [the 2018 and 2019] vintages as “very warm, very mature and very good.” The 2018s are chubbier because they have less acidity than the piquant 2019s. Thanks to the rainfall in August, which came at the right time—i.e. before the grapes were ripe—Seelbach was able to celebrate “the best botrytis of my life” in September/October. “2018 was the jackpot for us, a picture-book vintage with crystal-clear, crystalline but not fat botrytis wines,” which resulted in no less than five Trockenbeerenauslesen, four of which were already filled, while the fifth was still struggling for alcohol percentages. I tasted only three of the total four Beerenauslese selections. Behind each of them are “good quantities, similar to 1976,” says Selbach. “In 2018, we pressed BAs again fuder-wise.”

In 2019, another very warm vintage, rainfall during autumn caused some selections during the harvest, but also because there was more sunburn damage, which partly had to be cut by hand. “All in all, the 2019 vintage was by far not as easy as 2018. In the end, however, last year’s wines were also of excellent quality.” Indeed, it is a 2019 TBA from the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr that I awarded 100 points.

Because the demand for mature Rieslings (i.e. at least 12 years old) is increasing, Selbach is trying to build up stocks in order to bring them back onto the market as late releases after 10, 20, or even 25 years of maturation. “These wines will be a big hit once they have lost their baby fat.” Problems with premature aging or even oxidation are not really known in the Mosel, not even in hot years like 2003 or 2009. “There are hardly any disappointments with mature Mosel Rieslings,” Selbach says. “After years in the bottle, the wines are at least as good as back then, but mostly more complex.”

Where in the World is Selbach Oster?

Selbach Oster is in the middle Mosel.

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
96 Points

The 2019er Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Feinherb “Ur” alte Reben, as it is referred to on the consumer label, is a barely off-dry wine (with 20 g/l of residual sugar) made from clean fruit harvested in a parcel planted with century-old un-grafted vines situated in the prime Class I Lieu-Dit Kackert, and which formerly belonged the von Schorlemer Estate. It offers a beautifully aromatic yet smoky and primary nose of freshly cut herbs, yellow peach, candied grapefruit, almond cream, and apricot blossom. The wine coats the palate with juicy ripe fruits underpinned by some zesty and spicy acidity and leaves one with an almost dry rather than off-dry tasting feel in the intense finish full of presence. The after-taste is full of spices and is hugely sappy and has immense length. This barely off-dry tasting wine is a huge success and certainly one of the finest we have ever tasted in its genre! 2024-2049

Jean Fish and David Rayer, Mosel Fine Wines

95 Points

Bottled in early September, the 2019 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese feinherb "Ur-alte Reben" is very fine and subtle on the deep, intense and aromatic but pure, fresh and flinty-elegant nose with a touch of oak. Silky, refined and fresh on the palate, this is a very complex and crystalline Riesling with enormous length and complexity. A gorgeous wine that needs years to show its talents.

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Weingut Selbach Oster, Uferallee, Zeltingen-Rachtig, Germany

Mosel
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Germany