Geography

Wehlener Sonnenuhr (literally ‘sundial of Wehlen’) is a single Einzellage — a named individual vineyard — on the steep south-facing slate slopes above the Mosel river, opposite the village of Wehlen. The vineyard takes its name from the large stone sundial built into the cliff in the 1840s — a navigational tool for the workers in the vineyard. The slopes pitch at over 60 degrees in places and are composed entirely of decomposed blue Devonian slate with virtually no topsoil. Yields are tiny; everything must be done by hand.

The wines

Wehlener Sonnenuhr produces Riesling in the full German Prädikat range — Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauslese — depending on the vintage and the producer’s choice. The classification system rewards the level of grape ripeness at harvest rather than finished sweetness. Top producers (Joh. Jos. Prüm, especially) often leave their wines significantly off-dry to balance the high natural acid of slate-grown Riesling.

Style of the wines

Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling: white peach, lime, slate, white flower, sometimes a smoky-mineral note in the older bottlings. The blue slate produces a particularly distinctive ethereal, almost weightless quality that is the Mosel’s calling card. Acid is famously high; alcohol typically 7.5-10% in the lighter Prädikate (Kabinett, Spätlese) and higher in Auslese and above. The Prüm wines in particular often need a few years of bottle age before opening up — young Prüm Kabinett can taste reductive (sulfurous, struck-match notes that resolve with time).

How they age

Top Wehlener Sonnenuhr ages fifty years routinely. Joh. Jos. Prüm bottles from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are still drinking superbly. The wines develop a famous petrol-and-honey aged-Riesling tertiary complexity that few other dry-to-off-dry whites can match.

Producers we know

Joh. Jos. Prüm (the historical and stylistic reference for Wehlen — the family has worked these vineyards since the 18th century), S.A. Prüm, Markus Molitor, Selbach-Oster (Wehlener Sonnenuhr is one of their flagship sites), Dr. Loosen. Browse Mosel & Germany at /encyclopedia/regions-encyclopedia/mosel-encyclopedia/.