Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spatlese, 2019

75cl bottle.

Vegan.

I recently met Barbara and she showed me through her wines in a tasting.

The Selbach family has a long viticultural history dating back to 1661. Today, the Mitte Mosel estate is run by Johannes and Barbara Selbach with help from their children. The family farms 25 ha of vines in Zeltingen (Himmelreich, Sonnenuhr and Schlossberg) and Graach (Himmelreich and Domprobst), and out of these 6.5 ha are farmed organically where the rest follows sustainable practices. More than a half of their vineyards are planted on their own rootstocks and the majority are on very steep slopes, necessitating cultivation and harvesting by hand.

In the winery, the Selbachs aim to bring out the purity of fruit. Settling of the must is done by gravity, without the help of enzymes. Fermentation is natural, cool and slow and there is substantial lees contact to create extra texture. The ferment takes place in a mix of traditional old oak foudre and stainless steel. The wines are unfined. The estate produces both traditional Prädikat wines and intensely sweet botrytised wines but their main focus is shifting towards Trocken styles and Großes Gewächs. This is classic, intensely mineral Mosel Riesling, reflecting the minerality of those blue slate soils and perfectly expressing each vintage’s unique character.