Wehlener Sonnenuhr

Wehlener Sonnenuhr is a southwest-facing site located across from Wehlen on the Mosel, a village in the Mittelmosel, or Middle Mosel. The site has an SSW-S alignment, an elevation of 110 to 320 metres above sea level, and a very steep slope gradient of 60 to 100 percent. The vines grow on pure, medium-deep, weathered Devonian slate debris soil with a high rock content, over grey-blue Devonian slate. The long sunshine duration, the intense heat radiation of the soil and the proximity of the Mosel determine the site's microclimate. Unlike the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, its downstream continuation, the Wehlener Sonnenuhr reaches from the water of the dammed Mosel up to the protective edge of the forest. Compared with the adjacent Graacher Himmelreich, which borders its southern edge, Wehlener Sonnenuhr has a slightly more southern exposition and a higher concentration of pure, weathered Devonian slate.

• Soil: pure, medium-deep, weathered Devonian slate debris with a high rock content
• Alignment SSW-S and elevation of 110 to 320 metres above sea level
• Microclimate: long sunshine duration, intense heat radiation from the soil, and the proximity of the Mosel
• The Zeltinger Sonnenuhr is the downstream continuation of the Wehlener Sonnenuhr

The vineyard takes its name from a sundial erected in 1842 by the owner of the vineyard, Jodocus Prüm, an ancestor of the S.A. Prüm family; it originally served only to tell the time. The VDP's site profile gives the year as 1843. Jodocus Prüm was the brother of Sebastian Alois Prüm, who established the S.A. Prüm estate in the early 1800s. The sundial shows the true local time and runs about half an hour (32 minutes) behind the standard time made mandatory in 1893. Around the year 1900 the site took the name Wehlener Sonnenuhr, which replaced the former site name Lammerterlay around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and prevailed from the beginning of the 20th century. In 1954 the site, originally just 8 hectares, was expanded to 40 hectares. Today the GL Sonnenuhr, the prime parcel within the 40-hectare Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard, is classified VDP.GROSSE LAGE, the VDP's designation for the highest quality German vineyards, precisely demarcated by parcel.

• The sundial was erected in 1842 by Jodocus Prüm; the VDP gives 1843
• The name Sonnenuhr replaced the earlier site name Lammerterlay around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century
• The site, originally 8 hectares, was expanded to 40 hectares in 1954
• The prime parcel is classified VDP.GROSSE LAGE; dry wines from these vineyards are VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS

Riesling is the site's main grape variety at 99 percent, with the vines in these steep sites mostly trained on individual posts. German wine law names the Prädikate Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein, and Dr. Loosen's range from the site includes a Kabinett, a Spätlese, an Auslese and a dry Grosses Gewächs (GG trocken Alte Reben). Dry wines from GROSSE LAGE sites are VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS, while fruity and noble-sweet Prädikat wines from these sites are released on 1 May of the calendar year following harvest. J.J. Prüm, by contrast, produces virtually no dry wines and no GGs; its off-dry and sweet Prädikatsweine wear the VDP Grosse Lage designation. Dr. Loosen credits the site's stony blue slate soil with giving its wines a delicate, fresh acidity and elegance, and calls its Wehlener Sonnenuhr wines the most charming of the estate in their youth, with scents of white peach and green apple. Wines from Wehlener Sonnenuhr tend towards richness, structure and complexity, and tend to develop at a more relaxed pace than those of Graacher Himmelreich; as Katharina Prüm of J.J. Prüm put it to Decanter: 'Wehlener Sonnenuhr is the marathon runner of the two.'

VDP member estates working the site are Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Dr. Loosen, Joh. Jos. Prüm, S. A. Prüm, Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser (Thomas Haag) and Geheimrat J. Wegeler (Gutshaus Mosel). Decanter (2023) calls the Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Himmelreich sites the crown jewels of J.J. Prüm's estate. That estate was founded in 1911 by Johann Josef Prüm following a division of the original S.A. Prüm estate, and its holdings spanned 22 hectares in 2023. S.A. Prüm still owns the sundial, as a built landmark, and large parts of the original core of the site. Dr. Loosen, based in Bernkastel, is among the Mosel wineries descended from S.A. Prüm and bottles a Kabinett, a Spätlese, an Auslese and a GG from the site. Selbach-Oster, based in Zeltingen, counts the Wehlener Sonnenuhr among its six single vineyards, and Markus Molitor lists it among its vineyard sites.

• VDP member estates in the site: Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Dr. Loosen, Joh. Jos. Prüm, S. A. Prüm, Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser (Thomas Haag), Geheimrat J. Wegeler (Gutshaus Mosel)
• J.J. Prüm: founded 1911, 22 hectares (2023), Wehlener Sonnenuhr among its key vineyards
• S.A. Prüm: still owns the sundial and large parts of the original core of the site
• Dr. Loosen, based in Bernkastel, bottles Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese and GG from the site

Wines of Germany (DWI) counts the Wehlener sundial and the neighbouring Zeltinger sundial, only a few hundred metres away, among the most famous of the Mosel's vineyard sundials. In Wehlen the sundial became the town's landmark. Before pocket watches or wrist watches were available, sundials on the Mosel's steep, often south-facing slopes showed vineyard workers the progress of the day, and many gave their names to the vineyard sites around them. The community of Wehlen strives to become the city of one hundred sundials, with more than 50 already in place, the oldest from the 17th century.

Primary sources (VDP, Deutsches Weininstitut / Wines of Germany, the Weingesetz on gesetze-im-internet.de, and the producers' own sites for their own facts): https://www.vdp.de/en/the-wines/vineyardonline/lage/4116-sonnenuhr-wehlen-vdpgrosse-lage, https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-regions/highlight-of-wine-culture/361/the-sundial-vineyards, https://www.vdp.de/en/the-wines/classification, https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/weing_1994/BJNR146710994.html, https://sapruem.com/lagen/, https://drloosen.de/collections/wehlener-sonnenuhr, https://selbach-oster.de/lagen/, https://markusmolitor.com/lagen. Secondary source: https://www.decanter.com/premium/joh-jos-prum-producer-profile-10-wines-tasted-516272/. Last verified 2026-10-05