From: Mosel, Germany
Varietal: Riesling
Winemaker Notes. This is one of a trio of en-bloc harvested single parcels Johannes will introduce at the end of this report. Bearing in mind that the fundamental principle is to wait as long as possible and then pick the whole vineyard in a single pass, it stands to reason that everything in 2018 would be ripe – very ripe. And very clean. Thus the wine is more of-a-piece than usual, and it’s also well up into the Auslese echelon. Indeed this wine is so rich it almost subsumes its charged minerality – almost! If the palate follows the aroma that mineral will emerge, though it may take some years.
CWC Notes. To paraphrase Johannes and Sebastien Selbach from our meeting in January 2023 & sum up this wine succinctly: "Auslese, yes, but not made in the Auslese style."
Critical Acclaim and Taste. RP 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese Schmitt is deep, fine and complex on the coolish, refreshing, pure and stony nose with its crunchy slate, coolish herbal and even forest notes that enrich the highly refined and elegant Riesling fruit that was picked around the middle of October. Lush, intense and very complex on the palate, this is an energetic, salty-piquant and tensioned grand cru with lingering piquancy and salinity. Absolutely gorgeous and complex. A great vin de terroir. Tasted at the domain in September 2020.
WS 94 Wine Spectator
Alluring aromas and flavors of lemon curd, fresh apricot and spicy mineral mark this ripe yet very elegant and slim auslese, which is harmonious and approachable now, but will only improve with time. Shows great length on the mouthwatering finish. Best from 2023 through 2040.
W&S 91 Wine & Spirits
Johannes Selbach harvests Schmitt in one go rather than making several passes through the vineyard, as is typical in the Mosel today. In the ripe 2018 vintage, the wine is fully Auslese-level sweet, with a silky density of honeyed peach flavor. That fruit wraps gently around a core of acidity that makes the wine feel firm and precise. While it’s not showing a lot of detail yet, it offers lots of pleasure.
About. Since 1661 the Selbach family has owned vineyards in the Mosel region. Their main treasure is simply what nature presents us with: excellent vineyard-sites, and old, ungrafted vines on steep, south-facing slopes planted on heat-retaining, mineral-rich, rocky slate soil. Their philosophy of winemaking is "hands-on" in the vineyards and "hands-off" in the cellar. Most of Selbach Oster wines are still fermented and matured in the traditional oak "Fuder"-barrels supplemented by a small number of stainless-steel vats. They do not use new oak for Rieslings to preserve the delicate structure of subtle fruit and crisp acidity as purely as possible
