Country: Germany > Mosel-Saar-Ruwer

Joh. Jos. Prum

Appellation: Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Owner: Dr. Manfred Prüm, Dr. Katharina Prüm
Winemaker: Katharina Prum
Varieties Grown: Riesling
Hectares/Age of Vines: 22 ha / 100 years old
Altitude/Soil: Devonian shale (with different layers and degree of erosion)
Farming Methods: Conventional

No account of the estates of the Mosel would be complete without an account of Joh. Jos. (often referred to more simply as J-J) Prüm, which is without doubt a leader in the region, and thus in all Germany. Although the Prüm family were well established as viticulturists and winemakers, having been tending vines along the banks of the Mosel since the 17th Century, the Joh. Jos. Prüm estate only came into being in 1911, when the family vineyards were divided into two. The original estate, which owed much of its existence to Sebastien Alois Prüm, was divided between two grandchildren, and the share taken by Johann Josef Prüm is the one that interests us here. The other portion of the estate still exists today, under the name of SA Prüm.

The stones underfoot here are typically a blue-grey slate, like many of the vineyards along the Mosel it is precipitously steep, and it is also particularly rugged, with the vines running around crags of bare rock in places. From this vineyard come wines that near perfection if there is such a thing, across all levels of the Prädikat, although it is the Auslesen that stupefy most, especially when looking beyond the standard (but still fabulous) bottling to the Gold and Long Gold Kapsel (often abbreviated to GK and LGK) bottlings, superior selections which serve not to increase the texture and weight, but provide instead greater purity, focus and precision.