The Selbach-Oster vineyards are located on some of the best vineyard land in the heart of the Mosel wine country called " Mittelmosel", where grape vines have been cultivated since the times of the Romans. Due to a very long, temperate growing season, the grapes here mature slowly, producing award-winning Reislings with elegance, complexity and depth of flavor. Showing the subtlety and fragrance of flowers, yet having an intense mineral quality due to the vinyard's slate soils, Selbach-Oster is known for the taste of delicate fruit and a lingering, crisp finish.

The Zeltinger Sonnenuhr vineyard is on a very steep slope with large outcroppings of rock with large chunks of blue Devonian slate & very shallow subsoil of decomposed slate on top of slate bedrock. Driest soil of the winery's five sites. Very close to the water surface of the Mosel.

The Mosel estate of Selbach-Oster has been in the hands of the Selbach family since 1661. Currently at the helm is Johannes Selbach, who had worked with his father, Hans, until he passed away in early 2005. The close-knit family, based in Zeltingen, own a total of 16 ha of vines, with plots in this and some neighbouring villages; they include some of Germany's finest vineyards, including Zeltinger Sonnenuhr, Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Domprobst. The vineyards themselves are mostly slate, like most of the Mosel vineyards, although unusually there are some areas of loamy soil. Unsurprisingly they are planted entirely with Riesling, although incredulously these are ancient, ungrafted vines (unlike most of Europe, which uses vines grafted onto American rootstock which are resistant to the vine louse Phylloxera).

“Johannes Selbach, this estate's winemaker and director is on fire. His wines are top flight and yet his winemaking appears to be improving with each vintage. Readers should note that Selbach's wines typically appear substantially better after a few years of cellaring.” – Pierre Rovani, Wine Advocate