A surprisingly flinty & lightly smoky nose on this one, with lychee, green apple, a hint of pineapple, and a lovely sea spray aroma underpinning it all. The palate is beautiful; crystalline texture, delicate and balanced but still rounded, with a wash of stoniness and a lightly tropical finish. Sugar perfectly integrated and I would wager on the lower side. A pleasure.
Sounds delicious.
I’m guessing the Gold Capsule bottling…yeah, his '16s are gorgeously finessed to my taste.
I would actually guess that the sugar is higher than you’d imagine; it just has balance working in its favor…
Ye olde disclaimer: I imported a large swath of the wines to the US for the 2016s.
Green capsule, I’m one of the little people. 
You could very well be right - impeccable harmony.
Ah, yes, the green capsule wines, love love love those wines.
Feinherb is a very underrated category. More a victim of difficulty of classification (say what? another aspect of german nomenclature for the consumer to be confused about?) than any qualitative consideration.
Fwiw, the gold capsule wines aren’t more expensive (as they are with most German growers), rather he uses his own internal system that doesn’t jive with any standards outside of his winery…it just connotes sugar levels.
Thanks for sharing. Sounds lovely! I’ve had quite a few of the '16s from Molitor (though all white labels), it is a delightful vintage. Especially interesting to compare the ‘regular,’ one star, two star and three star bottlings. Totally idiosyncratic system but you can really see the quality go steadily up the chain. All levels very tasty, but, eg. the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese *** was mind blowing. Have to hold my remaining bottles back but may be challenging. I haven’t ever bought a green label (just white and gold) but seems like I need to try one at some point.
Ah, is that what they mean? I have always been confused by the different coloured capsules (to add to the labyrinth of classifications of the German wine system). Thank you for the info!
We had an older Molitor - '05, I think - Auslese of some kind that we used as a dessert wine at a place I used to work at and it was like drinking liquid pineapple nectar. People were blown away by it.
Any thoughts on the '16 white capsule Spätlese* ?
I had the 2016 Markus Molitor Riesling Graacher Domprobst Spätlese White Cap and I thought it was great, but could use more time for my liking. I love Markus Molitor, but have yet to try a green cap.
Short answer - these are lovely dry white wines that I’ve loved drinking. World class white wines at excellent prices. Now for a lot more detail.
To be clear, I haven’t had any 2016 white capsules with a single star - just “no star,” two star, and three star - for this vintage. Looking through the web I have found a “single star” Molitor wine - I think it was a 2017 gold capsule. My interpretation of the Molitor system is that within a single vineyard he rates bottlings by
- sweetness (i.e. white, green or gold capsule though perhaps this changed for 2017?). Roughly, white = dry, green = off-dry/feinherb, gold = sweet
- traditional prädikat designation (i.e. Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese)
- stars
But these aren’t used consistently, and it’s not clear how he decides. But the “higher” the prädikat designation and the more stars the better/higher priced typically. Usually the ausleses are two or three stars, and sometimes he has both 2 and three star ausleses from a single vineyard/capsule. Unique and complicated! Also seems different for BA/TBA/etc.
So these are the 2016 white capsule wines (dry) I’ve had:
- Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Kabinett (no star) - not that excited by this one. Less complex, shorter, clipped.
- Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese (no star) - very good. I really like the Spätlese level - very tasty wines that develop nicely at least over a couple of years. Longer, well balanced, good length and finish. This one had a really gorgeous nose of honey, peach, berry.
- Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese - the one I’ve had the most of. More of a floral, lemony, saline palate than the Graacher Domprobst, but with a really tart lip smacking finish. I’ve gone through a half dozen over the last 18 months. This level (Spätlese) is a sweet spot for me - roughly $25 buys a gorgeous, world class dry white wine.
- Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese ** - a really nice step up from the no star/Spätlese - more body, richer, silkier. The first one of these I drank had a bit of oak but the last one had already integrated (though I’m not very sensitive to oak). A very good $50-ish white wine, probably more age worthy than the no stars.
- Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese *** - Another major step up in complexity, balance and richness. This wine had that ethereally amazing density combined with lightness that I find in really good white wines. $80 is a big step up in price for sure but relative to other regions a bargain. I intend to age the rest of mine for at least 5 years, but we’ll see. I popped a 2013 of this recently and I really was impressed by it and loved its stage of development.
Rich - I just checked and there is no star - hah! Thanks for your rundown. Looking forward to opening my Sonnenuhr Spätlese.