Sommelier Journal

PAGES (40-43) January 2009

TERROIR Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Mosel, Germany Jesse Becker, MS Jesse Becker has 11 years of experience in nearly every facet of the wine industry, beginning in his hometown of Lincoln, Neb. After moving to Napa Valley in 2001, he worked in the cellars of the Miner Family and Robert Sinskey vineyards and at Tra Vigne Cantinetta. He sold wine for K&L Merchants in San Francisco before leaving for the 2004 harvest in Burgundy. He then moved to Chicago, where he worked for Bistro 110, Charlie Trotter’s, and NoMI restaurants. He passed the Master Sommelier exam in February 2008 and has most recently been a sommelier with Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colo.

“There’s something I have to do,” I said to my wife as we stood at the edge of the road, looking up the massive vertical face of one of Germany’s most renowned vineyards, toward the Sonnenuhr that belongs to the nearby village of Wehlen. This giant sundial, built into a rocky outcropping from the perpendicular vineyard wall, has appeared in countless photographs as an example of the steeply angled vineyards found in the heart of the Mosel River valley. Having studied the wines and the pictu...