Selbach-Oster

"Mosel Kabinetts should be like drinking cool spring water, thirst quenching and delicious." - Johannes Selbach

Hopefully by the time you read this we will have some Riesling Trockens from Selbach-Oster.  They should be some of the finest wines of their kind.  Currently we have two regional bottlings from Selbach and a dry Pinot Blanc from Selbach-Oster.

The Selbach family has been in the wine business in Mosel since the 1600s.  That means they have tended their vineyards for about four hundred years.  Oster was a barrel maker who married into the family on the paternal side centuries later.

The Mosel region is the oldest viticultural region of Germany.  It was originally planted 2,000 years ago by the Celts and Romans.  The Selbach family owns twenty-four hectares (59 acres) in what could be called the classico region of Mosel.  Those estate wines carry the Selbach-Oster label.  All other wines they market carry just the Selbach label.

Johannes Selbach compares his Rieslings to biting into various fruits.  Kabinett quality Riesling, which is basically dry, is like biting into an apple.  Spatlese, which is off-dry, he compares to getting into peaches or apricots.  Auslese, which is noticeably sweeter, is like ripe tropical fruit and Eiswein, according to Selbach, is honeyed smokiness.

We started this post with an allusion to Riesling Trockens which are the driest of German wines.  They are as dry as any white wine anywhere.  What makes them noteworthy?  The grape.  Riesling.  Riesling is the great white wine grape of the world.  Aside from complexity in flavors and aromas Riesling excels in structure, which is the spine and bones of a wine that supports the fruit flavors.  Riesling's unique character is the tension created between the acidity, fruit and minerality of the wine.  With Riesling Trockens that tension is visceral.


If you have read this article and would like to try a dry German Riesling stop in and say so.  We'll discount one down for you!