A Riesling tasting with Johannes Selbach (Selbach-Oster) and George Miliotes MS: The environment

The excitement was palpable in Wine Bar George's Barrel Room. Attendees had gathered for a much-anticipated tasting of the wines of Selbach-Oster, said tasting to be led by the current principal Johannes Selbach. I was happy to see the overwhelming response to George's continuing effort to bring back high-quality, estate-principal-led tastings to the Orlando area.

The tasting was titled "An Epic Afternoon of Riesling with Johannes Selbach and George Miliotes" and the advertised lineup of wines pointed to it being so. The tasting would include 13 of the estate's wines in four flights, with some of the wines issuing from watershed vintages.

In his opening remarks, George remarked that he had been friends with Johannes for over 30 years and what a pleasure it was to have him here in person to helm the tasting. At the conclusion of his remarks George turned the floor over to Johannes.

George's opening remarks

Johannes thanked us for being there and then launched into a description of the Selbach-Oster environment. His family has been making wine in the central part of the Mosel for over 400 years. The 24-ha property is populated with mostly old (some up to 100 years old), ungrafted (55%) Riesling (98% with the remainder being Pinot Blanc), the indigenous variety of the region.

Johannes Selbach

Riesling, according to Johannes, is adapted to cold and the long growing season. Mosel is the largest growing region in the world, thanks in large part to its soil and microclimate. The soil is a slate called Blue Devonian and originates from ocean-floor deposits laid down bertween 440 and 400 million years ago. This soil is similar to the soils found in the Douro (Portugal) and Priorat (Spain).

Mosel has a northern continental climate and this, in combination with the river, provides a microclimate that is advantageous for grapegrowing. The river wends its way through the region and reflects the suns rays, supplementing the ripening effect of direct sunlight on the fruit. The river also serves as a store of heat during the day and releases that warmth back into the vineyards during the nighttime. The hillsides bordering the river are very steep -- up to 60% in some cases -- and mostly south-facing, allowing direct sunlight for the better part of the day.

By Friedrich Petersdorff - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 de,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8938732

The soil is rocky and meager, forcing the vines to send their roots deep in search of water and nutrients. The soils are endowed with slate stones which, like the river, provide both reflective and warmth-storage functions. These conditions, according to Selbach-Oster, permit a "long, gentle growing season and a markedly late harvest" with concomitant benefits to the fruit and wine.

Turning from the general to the specific, we see that Selbach-Oster owns five key sites on the right bank of the heart of the middle Mosel and, further, three highly rated crus within the first three of these. the details of these holdings are featured in the figure below.

Once Johannes had completed his overview of the Selbach-Oster environment, he pivoted to the actual tasting. I iwll cover that phase in a subsequent post


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