Aged German Grand Crus for a Song - The 1998 Krover Paradies Auslese Trocken

We sold out of the Martin Muellen 1995 Krover Paraides Auslese Trocken and that will be shipped this

fall.  I knew that I would offer both of these and had to do it fast because they were both almost sold out at the winery.  I sold the 1995 first because there was almost none left , and as some of you found out, I had to cut you back, and substitute it with the 1998 Krover Paradies Auslese Trocken, which in fact is equal to the '95 and actually for my palate, a bit better. The extra three years of youthfulness put this wine in a wonderful place, with primary, secondary and tertiary flavors all happening at the same time. I think 1998 in the Mosel, in the right hands, is a slamming vintage. The best 1998's I have had have been Willi Schaefer, JJ Prum and Martin Muellen. Now, go and try and find me some '98 JJ and '98 Willi. In quantity. Direct from the estate. Especially if you find it for the incredible price of $37.99 on a 6-pack, which is what I am offering the incredible 1998 Martin Muellen Krover Paradies Auslese Trocken for. This wine has been resting in Martin's cellar since being made. You do not come across this type of provenance every day.  This is a stunningly complex wine with incredible stone fruits, acidity and minerality on the palate to go with an amazing, long finish.

Martin Muellen is a marvel. I have been tasting German wine a very long time and I have tasted nothing that is comparable to the incomparable wines of Martin Muellen. Let me just tell you a story of my recent marathon tasting with Martin. I made sure it was my first appointment of the day, as I wanted my palate to be ready to go, and there are usually so many wines that, if you taste there at the end of a long day, it is too much, even for this experienced Riesling taster. We started tasting, and naturally I would bug out about how great wine x was and I would ask Martin how long the wine had been open. He would look at the bottle, trying to decipher his handwriting of what date he wrote on the bottle, and casually tell me, "Oh this one has been open 4 weeks, this one has been open 6 weeks, this one has been open 3 weeks, and on and on and on." I would just sit there dumbfounded as I really had no idea what to say. These wines just last and last and last. The Energizer bunny of German Rieslings. From the simplest QBA, which is being shipped now, to the most complex, regal Auslese Trocken, from young to old and everything in between, Martin's wines age at a glacial pace. Bottle open, closed in a dark cellar, it does not matter.

Now, onto how the stuff tastes. It is a meditation wine. A wine that will make you think as it is so outside of normal vinous experience. To taste perfectly aged, what is essentially a 16 year old Grosses Gewachs, is an experience not many have had. Martin also makes wines in the most traditional style of anyone in the Mosel. That is what he is known for. It has lively acidity, which is a Muellen characteristic, along with wonderful herbal complexity and some lean, mean stone fruits and a lush, almost weightless yet dense texture. The flavors are stone fruits, the pithy part for sure, but this a wine of terroir and the character of the Krover Paraides shines through. The concentration is there as is the almost endless finish. The texture in the mid palate is something to behold. Martin's wines can be a bit aggressive young, but man, with age they are some beautiful swans. This is no exception. I can imagine the sample I tasted was 4 weeks old, that out of the bottle this needs some decanting to get "there." But "there" is so remarkable with this wine and what is "there" anyway with Martin's wines as they are constantly changing and getting to all these different levels of "there." I mean a wine that is still brilliant after 4 weeks open, has to have many iterations of "there." This will last, as Martin says, 20 more years. I should have enough stock to satiate the thirst of the list.

1998 Martin Muellen Krover Paradies Auslese Trocken - $42.99 

($227.94 6-pack)