How is S.A. Prum different from J.J. Prum?

and,

How do their wines compare? Specifically, does anyone know anything about the S.A. Prum: 2001 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese?

I was wondering the same thing. I am starved for access to some 2001 Rieslings from Germany and our choice here are ZERO! We had the Selbach-Oster not too long ago and so I have been looking at the S.A. Prum. I do not know much about this either but will likely choose it by default. It is $30 here and seems to fit my needs, but again only by default.
I am going to do some research and see if I can turn over something. In the meantime, if you have access to other choices for 2001, let me know, I am sure it will be worth the trip.

From a discussion I had on the Squires Board:

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The Prüm is a science per se.

Actually, The Prüm part of the Christoffel - Prüm Estate comes from the S.A. Prüm holdings. A daughter of Sebastian Alois Prüm (the founder of the S.A. Prüm Estate in 1911) married a (Jos.) Christoffel in the 30's, brought her share of the S.A. Prüm (Erben) vineyards and created this way the Christoffel-Prüm Estate.

So the Estate is only related from far with the J.J. Prüm Estate in as far as they have a common ancestor, Matthias Prüm, 4 generations ago. In fact this ancestor is also shared by the current owners of Pauly-Bergweiler, Robert Weil, J.J. Prüm, Weins-Prüm, Studert-Prüm and Dr. Loosen. Yep!

(To make matters even more complex, AFAIU, the Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Domprobst vineyards of Christoffel-Prüm are now leased out to ... S.A. Prüm)

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Escape. I thought you were going to try this and let me know?

On the Wine. All I know is that it is a different winery than JJ Prum. WS has only rated SA Prum wines once and that was in 1998. Specifically, the one you are looking at was rated 92, so it would make sense that the 2001 should be good. Like you, I am hoping for a reference before buying. Not sure why I'm being so cheap

There are actually four (!) Prüm wineries in Bernkastel on the Mosel: top tier Joh. Jos. Prüm, lower second tier Dr. F. Weins-Prüm, third tier S.A. Prüm and fourth tier Studert-Prüm! The rankings are from the Gault-Millau Weinguide Deutschland, not mine. And actually, although J.J. Prüm is the clear leader and certainly one of the best wineries in germany, all of them can make very good wine from time to time.

For more info on S.A. Prüm see

www.sapruem.com

I too was baffled by S.A. Prum, especially when I couldn't find tasting notes on the wine or ratings. That said, bottle I had was pretty damn good.

I just had the 2002 SA Prum Graacher Himmelreich Spatlese Riesling last month. I did not take any notes but recall it being an 87-88 point wine.

You can also find the following notes on the board for Studert Prum wines:

1999-2001 Studert Prum Riesling Spatlese Wehlener Sonnenuhr Vertical

2001 Studert Prum Graacher Himmelreich Kab and Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese**

And to demonstrate the difference between these estates and JJ Prum, check out these notes:

1999-2001 JJ Prum Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese Vertical

or this fantastic wine:

2001 JJ Prum Riesling Auslese Wehlener Sonnenuhr Gold Cap

VM

According to "A World of Wine - Germany" by Mikael Mölstad, "In 1911 the estate J.J. Prüm was split into 7 parts by the heirs. One of these heirs was Sebastion Aloys Prüm." (sorry for the bad translation)

So S.A. Prüm was a part of J.J. Prüm.

Mölstad considers J.J. to be better than S.A. but this is due to some financial problems S.A. had that are now resolved. Mölstad thinks S.A. has improved lately.

On a somewhat related note, and in particular to ESCAPE who noted that he or she is looking for German Riesling, you may want to check out Dee Vine Wines in San Francisco. They specialize in German wines (I think the website is www.dvw.com.). I have no other affiliation with them except as a happy customer. I love German Riesling and have found their selection to be great, their prices reasonable and the staff friendly and knowledgeable.

I've only had limited experience with them though, and would be interested in the opinion of anyone else who has bought wine from them.

WS has a review for the 2001 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese from J.J.Prum and gave it a score of 96. Comments made by cbmac and VM suggest that the S.A. Prum version of this wine will be several notches lower, although BER thought it was very good.

All this leaves me undecided. The price for the S.A. Prum is $33Cdn in Ontario - which isn't all that different from the price listed for J.J. Prum on the WS rating. However, it may be that Steve8 hit the nail on the head...

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Like you, I am hoping for a reference before buying. Not sure why I'm being so cheap

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S.A. Prum is located in Whelen, about 5 buildings down from J.J. on the uferalle. S.A. has a very nice B&B with 8 rooms on their property. If you ever want to stay in the Bernkastle area, I highly recommend it. It puts you within 5 minutes of the greatest wine producers in the Mosel (and the world, IMO).

Raymond Pruem is the former owner, now manager. He had to sell his portion to an outside investor. From what I understand, this has freed him up to focus more on the wine and tourism.

My wife and I did a tasting with Raymond while staying there. It involved tasting more than 20 wines. When he was pouring, it wasn't just an ounch each. It was more like 4oz. each...including 2 BAs and a TBA. The explanation that came with this was "I'll be offended if you pour or spit", said through a big smile.

If you go, request a tour of the cellar below the main building. There is a gated portion with bottles going back to the 1700's.

The wine quality (IMO) was 1 level below J.J. and Selbach Oster, but much, MUCH better than most bottles we get here in Michigan.