2013 Wegeler Riesling Mosel 750 ml

Sourced from a jaw-dropping lineup of Grosse Lage (Grand Cru) sites in the golden heart of the Middle Mosel, now over a decade old, Wegeler’s 2013 Riesling is well on its way to apotheosis. It boasts incredible complexity: A mesmerizing nose leads to a palate of exotic flavors and knife-edge balance. 

Wegeler has been one of Germany’s outstanding producers since the late 1800s. One look at their vineyard holdings in the Mosel shows you why. From their perch in the prestigious town of Bernkastel, they farm vines in a slew of the region’s hall-of-fame sites: names like Bernkasteler Doctor, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, and Graacher Himmelreich. Those are all Grosse Lage (Grand Cru) vineyards, producing wines that easily command $70+ per bottle.

And when they took Riesling from those starry sites and added them to fruit harvested from the Bernkastel Badstube—a famous einzellage (district) in its own right—Wegeler had all the raw materials to make a fantastic bottle in the cool 2013 vintage. They delivered big.

2013 was a cool growing season, with harvest lasting deep into fall, and the wines were definitely built for the cellar. In their retrospective of the vintage, Mosel Fine Wines described  a “rare combination of firm acidity and huge intensity from very high levels of dry extracts (a byproduct of low yields). This combination led to wines which were anything but open for business [at the time].”

Yet now, the wines, especially this Wegeler, have absolutely blossomed. It’s basically a Kabinett without the label—the estate only uses the Kabinett designation for single-vineyard bottlings—which means it’s discreetly sweet. Balanced by bright acidity, the wine is at an absolutely beautiful point in its aging curve right now.