2015 Riesling Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spätlese A.P. #19 white chip

I wrote at length in my inaugural Vinous report on Markus Molitor’s almost frightening ambition, indefatigability and exacting quality standards. At that time Molitor, who acts as his own cellarmaster, was farming what seemed a nearly inconceivable 60 hectares morsellated into some 170 parcels. But total surface area has not only crept higher since then, it is now set to leap, with the purchase of the 22-hectare State Domaine on the Saar at Serrig and the 2016 replanting of the Geisberg (between Schoden and Ockfen, part of an audacious joint reclamation with Roman Niewodniczanski of Van Volxem). An estate with fewer than five bearing hectares on the Saar (where Molitor was unable to renew his contract on the ancient vines in Niedermenniger Herrenberg that sourced more than a decade’s worth of amazing “Saar Alte Reben” bottlings) will thus soon have increased its productive surface area in that sector more than fivefold. Meanwhile, further acquisitions in Molitor’s underrated ancestral town of Kinheim have come on line with the 2015 crop. A picking crew that already typically numbers more than four dozen veterans will no longer be sufficient. But the most attention will be paid to Molitor’s smallest recent acquisition, one of two small parcels in the famed Bernkasteler Doctor belonging to a Catholic charitable institution (the other newly assigned to Thomas Haag of Schloss Lieser) whose leasing arrangements came up for renewal in late 2015.

Given that Molitor and his crew seem by now to have sidestepped or surmounted nearly any harvest hardship that nature can inflict on them, it won’t come as a surprise that 2015 here was, comparatively speaking, a cake walk and has resulted in another magnificent collection. “We started picking early by our standards,” Molitor related, explaining that there was a lot of variation in degree of ripeness from place to place depending largely on how the vines had reacted to summer heat and drought. “In the end,” he concluded, “when you’re harvesting fruit at a hundred Oechsle and still have ten grams of acidity, most of it tartaric, that’s a good sign.” But 2015’s inherently ripe tendencies have not precluded a group of dry-tasting Molitor Rieslings of 10.5-11.5 percent alcohol as expressive and virtually as buoyant as were the corresponding 2014s, wines that give the lie to those many German growers and vinous opinion-makers who insist that “dry Kabinett” is an oxymoron and that a Riesling harvested at significantly less than 90 Oechsle is incapable of channeling a great site. At the opposite end of the ripeness spectrum, Molitor prides himself on how much richness of flavor and indeed even how many degrees Oechsle he can achieve without the aid of botrytis. But in 2015, only one of his overtly sweet Auslesen came from botrytis-free fruit, because there was quite a bit of botrytis out there and Molitor is never one to miss an ennobling opportunity. That explains why he also prides himself, understandably, on achieving Trockenbeerenauslesen remarkable for both their quality and their frequency, and in the latter respect 2015 certainly doesn’t disappoint, having produced no fewer than seven different TBAs. None of them, however, had fermented to the point where I could assess them on my last visit, and some weren’t even legally wine yet at that point. (There are “only” three BAs, each of which I tasted from cask and have reviewed below.)

Because so many of Molitor’s most remarkable wines originate in the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, it’s worth noting that his holdings in this Einzellage, mostly with very old vines, include both the original core Zeltinger Sonnenuhr (next to Prüm’s), the original Zeltinger Schlossberg (once the commune’s most renowned site), and the amusingly named Schiesswingert (“fire-away vineyard”) in between. The name “Schlossberg,” confusingly and misleadingly, was co-opted in 1971 for an Einzellage that represents the huge prow-like slope rising immediately behind the village center a half mile downstream from what was originally Schlossberg and still lives up to that name in the scorched stone remnants of a once-formidable castle. (Most of the Selbachs’ Sonnenuhr parcels begin several hundred yards farther upstream from the original Schlossberg, including in Rotlay, where before the 2010-2011restructuring, replanting and reallocation of Zeltingen’s vineyards the Prüms also had a prime holding.) As long as I’m on the subject of site potential, note the expanded array of Kinheim Rieslings and the convincing case that they collectively make for Molitor’s home town, whose viticultural quality potential has long been unrecognized, because largely unrealized. Finally, I call your attention to the increased number of bottlings from Ürziger Würzgarten (not to mention to their sheer quality), which reflect a lot of recent work that Molitor has done reviving old vineyards in that prestigious Einzellage.

Readers unfamiliar with Molitor’s unique labeling conventions may wish to consult the introduction to my reviews of his 2014 collection for further details, but here is a brief synopsis. Level of dryness is signified solely by the color of the wines’ labels and capsule: white labels and capsules for those that taste dry (but are more often legally halbtrocken than trocken); white labels and green capsules for wines of very discreet sweetness (some legally halbtrocken, but all of a sort that most growers would nowadays term feinherb); gold labels and capsules for wines of overt sweetness. My own convention, as an assist to readers, is to include the capsule or label color as part of each wine’s description. A wine’s weight class and ripeness of raw material is signified by the conventional Prädikat designations, which are utilized across the entire range from dry to sweet. Stars, from one to three, are also liberally utilized across Molitor’s entire range – though primarily at the level of Auslese – to signify interim levels of ripeness or (at least in the case of non-Rieslings) his winery-internal quality assessment. Especially from a vintage like 2015, in which Molitor fielded an enormous collection even by his standards, it’s frequently the case that two or occasionally even three wines display the same Prädikat and number of stars. In such instances, I indicate not only the capsule colors but also the relevant AP (registration) numbers in question, so as to preclude any ambiguity. (Where possible, Molitor arranges those numbers to correspond year after year with the same vineyard source, label designations and style of wine.) Molitor’s bottling and release patterns are also unorthodox. The overwhelming majority of wines are bottle in a huge spurt of late summer activity, hence only at around 10 months from harvest. Beerenauslesen or “three-star” Auslesen sometimes spend even longer in cask or tank, while Molitor TBAs can spend several years in tank or demijohn before bottling; in fact, the latter often feature must weights so stratospheric that it takes more than a year of fermentation for them to officially become wine. TBAs are typically bottled in batches and released soon thereafter, although select wines from across the entire Molitor range are held in bottle for late release or re-release.