Super Important Auslese 2019 Muellen's Huhnerberg Auslese 96 Points (WA)

Martin Muellen Sweet Wines
 - The Stuff of Magic
 - These May Now be the Best Sweet Wines in the Mosel

2019 Martin Müllen Trarbacher Hühnerberg Auslese
- The Big Boy
- 96 Points Wine Advocate / 95 Points Stuart Piggot
- His Top Vineyard - One of the Best in Germany
- One of Best Young Auslesen I've Ever Tasted from Anyone
- Nose: Pure Hühnerberg Insanity
- Spice Bazaar. Rainwater. Apricot. Perfect Botrytis
- Powerful, Ridiculously Juicy and Concentrated
- Palate Impact is Like a Tsunami
- Textures, Flavors and Aromas
- It Has Everything ... All on a Line - Perfect Balance
- Will Age 30+ Years!

- 750 ML bottle

A Puck Wine

Most of you know Puck from the character in Midsummer Night's Dream. But that character was based on the Puck from English folklore. He's a clever, magical faerie/demon/whatever. He can do things for you (your laundry, mending, etc.) but can also mess with you if he feels like (in the play, he replaces someone's head with a donkey's head). He also has a wide repertoire of magic tricks.  

I call these Puck wines because Martin Muellen's wines definitely have some magic in them. Especially the sweet ones. Most sweet wines are sweet, of course, and fruity, of course, but they generally lack that magic something. Muellen's sweet wines have that magic something in spades. They are also playful and surprising. And it's not often that I'm surprised.  

Is Martin Muellen Now the Best Producer of Sweet Wines in the Mosel?
In the Mosel, we have traditionally had an established hierarchy that has been the same since I started out in wine. Schaefer, Prum, Lieser, Haag are the big four. I honestly think after tasting Martin's 16s 17s, 18s and now the otherworldly 19s he needs to be in the conversation for best sweet wine producer in the Mosel. His 19s as you'll see, have a special something that no sweet wines from the Mosel I've tasted ever really had before. The 18s had it but the 19s raise the bar even more. The 19s Martin made are incredibly special wines and works of art. The sweet wines are so special and so epic that I thought I'd tasted it all and then along came the 2019 sweet wines of Müllen. Just like with the 16 dry wines where he went from elite to super elite, he went from elite sweet wines to super elite sweet wines in 2019 and maybe the best in Germany and I don't say that lightly. 

The one thing these wines have in 2019 that I've rarely if ever experienced in Mosel sweet wines is the transcendental level of refinement. We've all had a top dry Muellen from 2016, and one notes that those have a level of refinement that I've only found in Keller. Take that refinement and transfer it over to the 2019 sweet wines and you have the most remarkable set of Mosel sweet wines I've ever tasted. Like the Prum 2001s these are can't miss wines that are unique (hasn't been anything like the Prum 01's since at Prum) and will age decades and are priced so so fairly as you've all come to know.

The Wine
Up today is the 2019 Trarbacher Hühnerberg Auslese for $49.99 a bottle on a 4-pack . This is the fourth young Hühnerberg Auslese I've offered since the epic 2010 a few years ago. This is an important wine and I hate using that term, but it is. It's one of best young Auslesen I've ever tasted from anyone and it really presents as a baby BA. Stephan Rheinhardt gave it 96 points and I heartily agree with him. It's from selection Massale vines planted in 2005 but the vine genetics are over 100 years old. It's a young vineyard but if it is making wine this sick at 14 what will happen once the vines get even older? Profundity! 

What a nose. Just pure Hühnerberg insanity. Super spice. Classic Huhnerberg. Spice. Huge aromatic spices. Wow. So good. So complex. A spice bazaar. Wet rocks. Pulverized rocks. Peach skin. Other vineyard fruit skins. So complex and so ethereal. Apricot up the wazoo. Wow. Just a spice bazaar. Rainwater. Apricot. Perfect botrytis. Super perfumed. Just gorgeous. Citrusy, apricot skin. Huge mineral underpinning as well. Love the feral aspect of the nose. On Day 2 it was singing. Gorgeous nose of spicy peaches. Lovely minerality and unreal depth.

What a palate. Powerful, ridiculously juicy and concentrated. So refined, and so pure. The refinement of Martin's 2019 sweet wines will only be spoken about in hushed tones. It's just pure beauty. Almost finishes dry with a deep savory element on the finish. Stunning. So juicy and ripe. Unreal purity and citrus density. Luscious and honeyed. Unreal clarity. Mid palate depth is sick. Electric. Fleshy and pure for days. What depth and let me tell you this finish is one of the longest I have ever tasted. Long. Long. Long. Long. Sick. So sappy, so dense but OMG it is so fine. It's art. The way all the textures, flavors and aromas interplay on your palate with the impact of the 2019 acidity and ripeness will make you just stop whatever you are doing. It's elixir. It has the juiciest and sweetest apricots of all time on the palate. Lovely spice elements as well. I mean it's unreal. It's so decadent and yet the freshest thing you've ever tasted. This will age 30+ years! Below are the dual 96/95 Point scores from Reinhardt and Piggott. 

On day 2, palate is OMG rich, fresh and with candied peaches, candied apricots and a lovely honeyed texture but insane and fresh acids to keep it all lively. Superb clarity and length. 

"The 2019 Trarbacher Hühnerberg Riesling Auslese is very clear, pure and piquant on the concentrated yet flinty, precise and even crunchy nose with chutney, apricot and orange zest notes. Lush, sweet and piquant on the palate, this is a very elegant and refined Auslese with stimulating grip and tension and a slightly bitter finish. Tasted at the domain in September 2020.."  - 96 POINTS Wine Advocate (Stephan Reinhardt)

"Still a bit closed, this youthful beauty slowly reveals its spring-flower and lemon-cream aromas as it aerates. On the palate, great energy is channeled into a sleek body of diamond-like brightness, which, together with the minerality, complements the floral-honey flavor wonderfully. Drink or hold." - 95 Points, Stuart Piggot

2019 Martin Muellen Trarbacher Hühnerberg Auslese - $51.99 ($158.97 4-pack)