Stefan Muller Krettnacher Euchariusberg Alte Reben Riesling Spatlese 1944

Stefan Muller delivered handsomely in 2018. His wines are packed with racy acidity and fresh flavors. While they show indeed a little bit more flesh on the bone than in recent vintages, they remain utterly commendable. The fruity-styled wines (Kabinett and Spatlese) are particularly successful and among the finest of the vintage. The off-dry wines are superbly racy and spicy and the Auslese are luscious yet focused and firm. This Estate is now among the finest of the region, and a must address for acid-affine lovers of Saar Riesling." “The discovery of the year comes from the Mosel region, more precisely from the Saar. 28-year-old Stefan Muller is a young man, but he makes wines like an old hand. He invents nothing new and yet is resolutely modern. With wines that tell of craftsmanship and origin, he brings the unknown terroir of the Saar into the spotlight... This young winegrower will belong among the greats in ten years.” "The 2017 collection completely wipes out anything he produced so far. Simply put, [Muller] produced one of the finest collections of the vintage." “The discovery of the year comes from the Mosel region, more precisely from the Saar. 28-year-old Stefan Muller is a young man, but he makes wines like an old hand. He invents nothing new and yet is resolutely modern. With wines that tell of craftsmanship and origin, he brings the unknown terroir of the Saar into the spotlight... This young winegrower will belong among the greats in ten years.” —Gault Millau Wine Guide Discovery of the Year 2017 Stefan Muller The Muller estate consists of 10 hectares, mostly Riesling (90% of their holdings) and a little Pinot, both Noir and Blanc. Everything is hand-harvested on rolling hillsides teeming with life and vegetation. The vines see no herbicides and no pesticides—only some fungicide when needed. The labels depict topographical maps of each vineyard. The most well-known site they have is Krettnacher Altenberg—mainly blue slate and the local green slate known as Diabas (cf. Zilliken’s vineyards). Their largest holding is the Euchariusberg (pronounced oy-sharius-berg) where they have 5 hectares of vines planted in 1944 and 1964. This is a rambling, diverse terroir from which Stefan derives emphatically delicious Rieslings, especially in sweet pradikats. The parcels in Niedermennig are red slate and contain many old, ungrafted vines. Though less well known than the others, the Niedermenniger sites are hidden gems of extraordinary quality and history which deserve a brighter spotlight shone on them. At Bowler we focus on these sites with great excitement. In the cellar, Muller also follows a surprisingly ad hoc usage of barrels and tanks, with no strict design for which wines go in what vessel; however, once a wine starts fermentation in one tank or barrel, it ages in that same vessel until completion. There is no chaptalization, and all wines ferment with wild yeast; sulfur is only added at bottling. In other words, Stefan skews organic at his small estate, but does not adhere strictly to the regimen that word implies: he is, in a word, pragmatic. The wines at Muller are exquisitely balanced, succulent, wildly aromatic, unapologetically ripe, and true to the Saar.