Absolutely epic. I don’t know if I have the patience to wait 30+ years to open my Prums from the 00’s!
Wow - thanks for the notes Otto!
Maybe 20 years ago, the cellar of a local wealthy collector was being liquidated and I got the chance to buy some of his wines. I was astounded to see that he had maybe 10 cases of top TBAs, 20 cases of BAs, and 25 cases of Ausleses, all from the very best vintages and producers! But one thing that caught my eye was some 1973 Wehlenuhr Sonnenuhr Kabinett from J.J.Prum. Hmmm… how did a Kabinett from a decidedly off vintage get in there?? And it was 20 years old then! So, with curiosity, and at a low price, I bought a few. Well, the moral of the story is that this guy knew what he was doing! That kabinett, at 20 years old, was just lovely! No decline or bad aspects whatever, just smooth, totally sublimely integrated - wonderful, classy juice. I remember thinking that it was like drinking fresh cold water from a mountain lake at sunrise! It put dreams in your head!
A private collection straight from Prüm (except for the 1971 and the auction bottle of 1996 which were bought recently). We did have a meal with the wines (foie gras for starters; pork with Madeira sauce for main). This wasn’t a blind tasting, everything was open, and it took a long time, about six hours.
Is that detail enough on the circumstances? 
If you know of good recipes to have with this type of sweet and sweetish Rieslings, do share! I am not a terribly imaginative cook so when I come up with something that works I tend to make that dish a bit too often. Lately I’ve gone to a very basic dish for these sweetish Rieslings: pork neck and sauerkraut slowly braised in a bottle of dry Riesling for at least 4h. And I think that works wonderfully with a range of sweetness from Kabinett to a slightly aged Auslese (I’ve not tried it with young Auslese yet).
The only thing missing is how I get invited to the next one. Pretty much my dream tasting right there.
From such an epic tasting, I’m guessing no amount of detail is ‘enough’
Was the tasting in Finland?
Yes it was.
Correction: Claude Kolm tasted a 1949 Wehlen-Zeltinger Sonnuhr TBA. At first, I only read about the 1959, though Loeb & Prittie mention the 1949 too. I should ask Katharina to be sure on the first vintage of this blended wine as well as their first bottlings of BA and TBA.
As a follow-up to my previous replies, Katharina says that her grandfather produced, already in the 1930s, small quantities of wine as Wehlen-Zeltinger Sonnuhr. Her father, however, can’t remember a 1959 TBA from a blend of these two sites. (Loeb & Prittie’s Moselle is mistaken.) He believes that 1934 was the first BA and 1937 the first TBA produced at their estate.
They still hold “the best parcel” in the ur-Sonnenuhr of Zeltingen (i.e., near the sundial). Their parcel further upstream, in Rotlay, was taken away and given to another producer (Selbach-Oster) against their wishes during the remodeling (Flurbereinigung). On my site, Kevin Goldberg contributes a riveting piece about Middle Mosel vineyard disputes (including Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, Erdener Treppchen, and Bernkastler Doktor) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Wow, that is one hell of a tasting.
I’ll say! You’re a lucky fellow, Otto!
Amazing Otto. This was a history lesson in more ways than one. Does anybody know more on how the transfer of Rotlay and/or other parcels during flurbereinigung would have happened against the will of wineries like Prum? Was this somewhat accepted because it was more efficient? Were the exchanges “equal”?
Edward: I’m no expert, but there are different types of vineyard restructuring (Flurbereinigung) in the Mosel region. If the majority of the growers in a commune choose to have a full-scale land consolidation of a hillside vineyard then everyone has to go along with it. Of course, the growers look at ways to make compromises by swapping plots, saving certain old vines, and so forth. In the past, the authorites poorly remodeled some sites.