Mosel Germany
Mea culpa Germany – Or as they say in German “meine Schuld”
Photo from Prüm winery
This week attended a most informative, provocative and engaging presentation on German Riesling. While I enjoy a nice dry Riesling especially with specific dishes, I have shied away from German wines since 1976. Yes, that is a long time but had an experience with a German wine salesman who came to our house loaded with beyond sweet wines that they offered for their wine club. We tasted some 6-8 wines and couldn’t stomach any of them. Since then, found a few American produced dry Riesling including Smith-Madrone Vineyards which I consider the best in California.
When this seminar and tasting arose from Vinum55, thought it was time to better understand German Riesling. While I have wines in the cellar from Chile, Argentina, Canada, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, and many states around the US, not a single German wine has appeared in the cellar. This is where my mind was reset this week.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The presentation was done by Ian Ribowsky GM of SA Prüm, who not only has a vast knowledge of wine, but a mesmerizing speaker, provided a tutorial on the history of German wine business and tasting. It is difficult to sum up the scope of this one-and-a-half-hour interaction with him. He first went through the history of the Prüm family name and their 800-year history. The winery and winemaking today are under Saskia Prüm who is an enology graduate of Geisenheim and the first woman in their 800-year history to lead the winery.
Photo from Prüm winery
Before getting into the wine, Ian delineated the geography of the Mosel River where their vineyards in various villages are located. First the area is at the 51st latitude extremely northern compared to USA vineyards, on extremely steep hillsides, some being 80% slope. The soils from the area have been tested and date back some 390 million years ago on Devonian slate. This soil provides continuing heat even through the evening. The vines are resistant to frost and mildew and the minerals in the soil provide heavenly aromatics and complexity.
Next Ian discussed the history of The VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingϋter) an association of Germany’s top wine producers with promote standards of quality and ecological management. This includes rigorous adherence to the protocols establishing low yields, strict rules on weights on harvest practices, selective hand harvesting, etc. All to secure the future of Germany’s historical wine presence in the global market. Of the 16,000 wineries only 202 are members. You must be invited to be a member of this exclusive quality assurance group of wineries.
The last background information discussed was the qualification and naming of wines from dry Riesling to a sweet to Riesling to “stickies” (very sweet). Also mentioned the age ability of Riesling wines from Germany, which was a revelation with some going up to 50 years!
All of this before the first sip commenced! Truly a fascinating and eye-opening educational experience.
We then began the wine tasting tour, which I’ve included and a couple of my notes on each:
2023 Raimund Prüm Solitar Dry Riesling – 11.5% alcohol, 6.9 g/l RS, flavors of orange/tangerine, great acidity – $25/bottle. (sorry no picture)
2022 Prüm Blue Trocken Dry Riesling VDP – Green apple -$30/bottle
Photo ©Michael Kelly
2020 SA Prüm Wehlen Sonnenuhr GG Dry Riesling – 5.4 g/l RS, will last up to 50 years, no toast on the German barrels, fermented 3-5 months, 1 year in oak, a faint light aroma -$95/bottle.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
2015 SA Prüm Wehlen Sonnenuhr GG Dry Riesling – 9 g/l RS, 8.8/l acidity, to be paired with a big meat with no sauce, this specifically was age worthy for 50 years. – $95/bottle.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
2025 Raimund Prüm Essence Riesling – 22g/l RS, Acid at 7.7, considered their everyday or pleasurable wine, pineapple, peach, apricot, medium dry, will age 10 years, great with fish, salads, chicken and spicy dishes – $25/bottle
Photo ©Michael Kelly
2020 SA Prüm Wehlen Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett – 42.8 g/l, alcohol 8.2%, lemon and lime flavors, fruity but not too sweet – $42/bottle
Photo ©Michael Kelly
2019 SA Prüm Wehlen Sonneunuhr Riesling Spätlese – a minimum of 60 g/l, ability to age 60 years, 8.5% alcohol, very sweet, a dessert wine – $55/bottle.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Significant discounts were offered on purchasing three packs for each of the wines. PH levels for all these wines ran in the 2.7 to 3.1 range. On the dry Riesling, they were fragile, exquisite and aromatics were astonishing. One of the last slides shown was a food pairing with each type of wine showing the diversity of foods that are optimal with different Riesling profiles.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
This is a brief summary of the evening. Should you get an opportunity to listen to Ian or travel to Germany, make SA Prüm a must visit. All their wines are rated in 90+ range and some are going as high as 98 points. Your mindset on Germany Riesling will be blown away (like me) and you will endeavor to search out German Riesling’s going forward.
Sláinte or more appropriately ‘CHirz,
Michael Kelly