- The Stuff of Magic
- These May Now be the Best Sweet Wines in the Mosel
2018 Martin Müllen Trarbacher Hühnerberg Auslese
- The Big Boy
- 95+ Points Wine Advocate / 95+ MFW
- 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
- 750 ML bottle
2018 Martin Müllen Trarbacher Hühnerberg Spatlese*
- His Top Vineyard - One of the Best in Germany
- Huge, Huge Nose
- Stunningly Pure Fruit, Unreal Perfume. Creamy, Spices, Apricot
- Racy but also so Opulent
- Juicy Intense Apricots and Peaches Assault the Palate
- Intense Hühnerberg Spices and Minerality
- Grand Cru Cut, Depth and Complexity
- Magic Genius Wine of the Highest Level
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 16's 17's and now the otherworldly 17's he needs to be in the conversation for best sweet wine producer in the Mosel. I would take his sweets over anybody at this point in my career. His 18's as you'll see, have a special something that no sweet wines from the Mosel I've tasted ever really had before. The 17s had it but the 18s raise the bar even more. The 18s 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 18 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 2018 and maybe the best in Germany and I don't say that lightly.The one thing these wines have in 2018 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 2018 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. Below are a few quotes from Jean Fisch and David Rayer from Mosel Fine Wines on why the top 18's are so special and a quote from Martin why his 18's are so special.
"Lovers of acid-driven and playful freshness in their Mosel Riesling should plunge on the incredible collections dished up by a few of the top growers ..." Mosel Fine Wines on the 2018's.
"Many of the fruity-styled wines are bigger and sweeter than usual and are often heavily declassified.However, the wines from a few top growers completely defy the vintage and are among the most playful and elegant Mosel Riesling ever produced." Mosel Fine Wines on the 2018's.
"Martin Müllen is ecstatic about his 2018 vintage: "It's a great vintage for Jonas and me [Jonas is the son of Martin who has joined the Estate recently after finishing his winemaking studies in Geisenheim]. Also 2003, a vintage with many similarities with 2018, was also a great success for us. I think the success lies in particular in the fact that we use an old basket press and only press very gently over someti mes 20 hours. This allowed us to retain some acidity in our wines." - Martin Muelllen
Up first is the 2018 Trarbacher Hühnerberg Auslese for $52.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. This is the third 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 95+ 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 15 what will happen once the vines get even older? Profundity!
What a nose. Just pure Hühnerberg insanity. Super spice. 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.
What a palate. Powerful, ridiculously juicy and concentrated. So refined, and so pure. The refinement of Martin's 2018 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. 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 2018 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 95 Point scores from WA and MFW
"The 2018 Trarbacher Hühnerberg Riesling Auslese is beautifully clear and flinty on the fresh, crunchy slate and herbal-scented bouquet with small red peach aromas. Still terribly young but promising the very best. On the palate, this is a highly refined, frisky, playful and super digestible Auslese with lush, concentrated yet brilliant and precise fruit. This is highly digestible and up there with the Auslese from Joh. Jos. Prüm. The finish here is incredibly lush and salty and promises a great aging potential, though the wine is already dangerously seductive today. Made with virtually no botrytis, this is from 60-year-old vine from the fourth terrace as well as the steep part of the bottom just below the first terrace but not from the Jungfeld, where the 2017 Auslese was sourced. Tasted in June 2019." 95+ POINTS Wine Advocate (Stephan Rheinhardt)
"The 2018er Trarbacher Hühnerberg Riesling Auslese was made from fruit with 10% botrytis harvested at a full 110° Oechsle, and was fermented down to noble-sweet levels of residual sugar (115 g/l). It offers a beautiful nose made of melon, floral elements, coconut, candied lemon, and finespices. The wine is incredibly pure and elegant on the palate, and leaves a fresh feel of juicy melon, pear, passion fruit, and candied lemon in the long and gorgeously subtle and complex finish. This is a superb "Auslese lange GK"-styled wine in the making. 2033-2058." 95 POINTS MFW
Up next is the 2018 Trarbacher Hühnerberg Spatlese** for $49.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. This is a remarkable Spatlese. I can't remember a two star sweet Spatlese from Huhnerberg since we have opened. Huge, huge nose with stunningly pure fruit and just an unreal perfume. Creamy, spices, peach, apricot, hint of super clean botrytis. Super complex. Just a stunning array of the purest, most, complex expression of Hühnerberg one can imagine.
The palate initially was so so young and super closed but had an outline of top notch finesse and elegance. So clean, like a feather. So fine. So refined. Clean botrytis comes through on the palate and just as it opens the finesse gains more ground and becomes even more stunning. The palate is incredibly sappy and super deep. So so young. This is a 25+ year Spatlese. Easy. Wonderful, compelling freshness and acidity. So racy but also so opulent. So delicious. Every sip is a showstopper. After loads of air measured in hours and days many flavors and textures came to be of this wine. You cannot believe that this wine is not made of liquid spider silk. This is so fine. Amazingly pure. Balanced like nothing else. Juicy intense apricots and peaches assault the palate with intense Hühnerberg spices and minerality. From two different areas of the Hühnerberg. One is 130 meters high and the other is 200 meters high. Stunning, stunning wine of Grand Cru cut depth and complexity. The sap, density, purity and refinement of this wine is insane and has to be tasted to be believed. Genius wine of the highest level. Below is the 95 Point Score from the WA from Stephan Rheinhardt and the 93 PT Score from MFW.
"The 2018 Trarbacher Hühnerberg Riesling Spätlese ** is deep, pure and fresh on the concentrated and herbal-scented nose where crushed stone aromas intermix with phenolic notes and perfectly ripe red peach aromas. It is still a bit closed but complex and highly refined. On the palate, this is a concentrated, seamless, round and beautifully balanced Spätlese with lingering salinity and very fine tannin grip. This is a highly expressive and persistent Spätlese with crunchy slate flavors and a long, salty, tensioned and refined finish. Very complex and long, this is a great Spätlese. It was bottled in late April with 8.5% alcohol. 4,000 bottled produced. Tasted in June 2019."
95 POINTS WineAdvocate (Stephan Rheinhardt)
"The 2018er Trarbacher Hühnerberg Riesling Spätlese ** was made from fruit harvested at a massive 108° Oechsle, and was fermented down tonoble-sweet levels of residual sugar (105 g/l). It offers a beautiful nose made of melon, candied lemon, grapefruit, floral element s, and smoky slate.The wine proves beautifully pure and suave on the creamy and Auslese GK-styled palate. It leaves a gorgeous saline and spicy feel in the multilayered finish. The after-taste is round but also superbly playful thanks to a kick of lemon zest, which is nicely balanced thanks to a gorgeously creamy side. 2028-2048 " 93 POINTS MFW
2018 Martin Muellen Trarbacher Hühnerberg Auslese - $54.99
($158.97 3-pack) (*Includes Tariff of $6.02)
2018 Martin Muellen Trarbacher Hühnerberg Spatlese** - $51.99
($149.97 3-Pack) (*Includes Tariff of $5.40)
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