Wehlener Sonnenuhr

The VDP describes Wehlener Sonnenuhr as a southwest-facing site located across from Wehlen on the Mosel, a village that Decanter (2023) places in the Mittelmosel, or Middle Mosel. The VDP's site profile gives 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, which the profile lists as grey-blue Devonian slate. The VDP names the long sunshine duration, the intense heat radiation of the soil and the proximity of the Mosel as the factors that determine the site's microclimate. Selbach-Oster notes that, 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. Decanter (2023) reports that Wehlener Sonnenuhr has a slightly more southern exposition and a higher concentration of pure, weathered Devonian slate than the adjacent Graacher Himmelreich, which borders its southern edge.

• Soil (VDP): 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 (VDP site profile)
• Microclimate (VDP): long sunshine duration, intense heat radiation from the soil, and the proximity of the Mosel
• Selbach-Oster: the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr is the downstream continuation of the Wehlener Sonnenuhr

The vineyard takes its name from a sundial. DWI says it was erected in 1842 by the owner of the vineyard, Jodocus Prüm, and S.A. Prüm, which calls Jodocus Prüm its ancestor, gives the same year and says the sundial originally served only to tell the time; the VDP's site profile gives the year as 1843. Decanter (2023) identifies Jodocus Prüm as the brother of Sebastian Alois Prüm, who established the S.A. Prüm estate in the early 1800s. DWI notes that the sundial shows the true local time and runs about half an hour (32 minutes) behind the standard time made mandatory in 1893, and dates the site's adoption of the name Wehlener Sonnenuhr to around the year 1900; the VDP says the name prevailed from the beginning of the 20th century. According to S.A. Prüm, the name Sonnenuhr replaced the former site name Lammerterlay around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, and in 1954 the site, originally just 8 hectares, was expanded to 40 hectares. Today its prime parcel is classified VDP.GROSSE LAGE, which the VDP calls the designation for the highest quality German vineyards, precisely demarcated by parcel; the VDP describes the GL Sonnenuhr as the prime parcel within the 40-hectare Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard.

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

The VDP gives Riesling as the site's main grape variety at 99 percent, with the vines in these steep sites mostly trained on individual posts. The Weingesetz names the Prädikate Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein, and Dr. Loosen's own range from the site includes a Kabinett, a Spätlese, an Auslese and a dry Grosses Gewächs (GG trocken Alte Reben). The VDP calls dry wines from its GROSSE LAGE sites VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS and says fruity and noble-sweet Prädikat wines from these sites are released on 1 May of the calendar year following harvest. By contrast, Decanter (2023) reports that J.J. Prüm produces virtually no dry wines and no GGs, and that 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 says its Wehlener Sonnenuhr wines are, in their youth, the most charming of the estate, with scents of white peach and green apple. Decanter (2023) says the wines of Wehlener Sonnenuhr tend towards richness, structure and complexity and develop at a more relaxed pace than those of Graacher Himmelreich; Katharina Prüm of J.J. Prüm told Decanter: 'Wehlener Sonnenuhr is the marathon runner of the two.'

The VDP lists the member estates working the site as 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, whose holdings it gives as 22 hectares; the estate was founded in 1911 by Johann Josef Prüm following a division of the original S.A. Prüm estate. S.A. Prüm says the sundial, as a built landmark, and large parts of the original core of the site are still in its ownership. Decanter lists Dr. Loosen among the Mosel wineries descended from S.A. Prüm; Dr. Loosen, based in Bernkastel, 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, Wehlener Sonnenuhr among its key vineyards (Decanter, 2023)
• 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

DWI names the Wehlener sundial and the neighbouring Zeltinger sundial, only a few hundred metres away, among the most famous of the Mosel's vineyard sundials, and says that in Wehlen the sundial became the town's landmark. DWI explains that 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 that many gave their names to the vineyard sites around them. According to DWI (no year given), 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 2026-09-28