2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese (3 star)

Super-ripe pear and musk melon, decadent lily flower, and honey scent the nose of Molitor’s “one-star” 2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 1 Star, the first wine presented to me in this collection with noticeable botrytis influence. Soft and creamy on the palate, this is another very pure and impressively long if not (for now at least) terribly complex examples of the house style, and a wine I whose vintage I would never guess outside of that context. Caramel and honey reinforce the impression of noble and discreet botrytis in the finish. This will almost certainly live for two or more decades, though I would not want to speculate as to how much additional nuance it might acquire, or the point at which it might rise to greatest eloquence. The sheer size of Markus Molitor’s sprawling estate, his distinctive style, and his policy of protracted release – about all of which, readers are encouraged to consult issue 167 for further details – point to an incredibly ambitious and almost implausibly energetic individual. When I arrived this year, the huge tasting room was on the brink of remodeling, and if Molitor’s plans are approved by the regional zoning authorities, his winery will soon find a new and expanded home built into the hillside beside the Klosterberg vineyard (a site officially attached to Wehlen, on account of its being on the Mosel’s Left Bank). The Molitor label will also be undergoing a face-lift, and some of the complex winery-internal conventions that govern wine descriptions at this estate – including the use of stars specifically as an indicator of must weight, and of white labels for dry-tasting and gold labels for noticeably sweet wine – might be modified. In a matter of greater flavor interest, Molitor is in the process of working with Austrian cooper Franz Stockinger to render barrels from his own woods near the Klosterberg. An incredible 20 different Trockenbeerenauslesen, largely of vintages 2005-2006, joined me in the tasting room last September, arrayed in glass demijohns under blankets: Molitor’s must weights are frequently so high that fermentation can be measured in years, not months. After two vintages like that, 2007 represented a return to conditions which – at least, at any other estate – would be deemed closer to normal. The efficacious acids of this vintage generally flatter the characteristic high ripeness and opulence of Molitor’s style of Riesling. Even with a crew of 60 pickers, Molitor regretted last year that “with our size, we lacked enough time to linger over many vineyards.” Things were dramatically different in 2007. Infamous for his risk-taking late harvesting as it is, Molitor sought to assure me that his crew had many a famous vineyard site all to themselves by the time they went picking. While Molitor’s release schedule is intentionally leisurely and he believes in giving his wines long elevage on their lees, most of the 2007s (of which those canvassed in this report – despite their plentitude – do not represent his entire collection) had been bottled shortly before my September visit, and the balance – save for a few very high residual sugar nobly sweet wines – were bottled by the end of that month. Importer: Schmitt Soehne, Millersville, MD; tel. 410 729 4083