Weingut Markus Molitor, a leading winery in Mosel (Germany). Most famous for its Rieslings.
Markus is the winery’s eighth generation winemaker, took over the winery in 1984 at the age of 20. Vineyards feature in many old vines, with some over 100 years old. Most sites are located on steep slopes with the steepest on 80% gradient, making almost all vineyard work must be done by hand. Over 90% is planted to Riesling, but the Pinot Noir also receives an excellent reputation. Pinot Blanc is also planted. Organic practices play an important part of the winery and Markus is a strong believer in terroir expressions. On average, the winery produces 80 wines every year! Each one unique in its combination of vintage and vineyard characters, ripeness level and sweetness degree. The colour of the capsules on the bottle has special meanings: white is dry, green is off-dry, gold is sweet with botrytis (noble rot). Markus Molitor also uses a star system for wines within a vineyard to distinguish the qualities. (One, two and three stars) Three stars are the best. The system is not a part of German wine law but provides easy understanding.
For winemaking, natural yeast is used and fermented in wooden barrels at low temperatures, aged on lees (dead yeast) for a few months before bottling, with no fining. Markus got the nickname ‘Herr 300 Punkte (Mr 300 Points)’ as three Auslese Rieslings (sweet) from the 2013 vintage received 100-point ratings from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. First German winemaker to receive three 100 points in a single vintage. Now the winery received 17 one hundred points wine.
Zeltinger Himmelreich is on a south / south-west facing steep slope, rich in slate from the Devonian period, often showing floral, mineral/flinty, spicy characters in wines.
