Stefan Müller

As promised when I reported last year on a few of his 2017s, I subsequently sat down to taste extensively with Stefan Müller. He proved to be a major talent whom I now plan to visit annually. In his mid-30s, Müller is the third generation to operate a now 22-acre estate – which since 2013 he has done in tandem with his partner Johanna Lapinski (a trained sommelier from a prominent wine merchant family) – though his approach clearly differs radically from that of his father who, to give but one example, is responsible for his son’s having to gradually rebuild a cellar of Fuderfässer from scratch. Whole-cluster pressing for precision and acid retention, spontaneous fermentation and early spring bottling off the full lees are norms here. “Our spontaneously fermented Rieslings often like stopping at between 15 and 15 grams,” quipped Müller; but, just as for many growers, 2018 brought an enhanced reluctance to ferment to legal dryness. Nevertheless, as that quote suggests, a Müller wine labeled feinherb will generally incorporate only very subtle or even hidden sweetness, in contrast with what feinherb connotes, for example, at nearby Weinhof Herrenberg. And given acid levels of 10 grams and more in the residually sweet wines (indeed, even in those designated feinherb) Müller’s 2018s are vintage outliers in a promising sense. Müller emphasizes his laissez-faire attitude toward fermentation. Still, it surprised me to learn that his unapologetically sweet bottlings are seldom a project of intervention and that even ones labeled “Auslese” typically reflect fermentation having simply petered out at a high level of residual sugar. One reason for that situation, he admitted, is that he still has to rely on a high percentage of tanks (though his goal, as already adumbrated, is to increase his fuder-to-tank ratio, to the extent that he can locate well-tended Fuderfässer for sale). But he notes that when a wine in tank stops fermenting, he doesn’t need to immediately add SO2 as would be necessary in cask, so he thinks that a positive bit of oxidative influence is thereby achieved. Be that as it may, I found myself slightly favoring Müller’s less sweet and cask-raised bottlings.

Picking here commenced on September 12, 2018 with a Pinot Blanc that I did not taste, but segued immediately into Riesling and was completed on October 5. As it is, must weights at the start were already too high for Müller to be able to render as many Kabinetts as he had hoped and intended.

Regular readers of my reports will be familiar with the Konzer Tälchen sector of the Saar, as Müller’s vineyards are often cheek-by-jowl with ones farmed by the Webers of Hofgut Falkenstein. There is a preponderance of old vines, including among many of those parcels that Müller has only recently acquired, so that (just as at Hofgut Falkenstein) even vines of more than 60 years of age sometimes aren’t deemed to merit labeling the corresponding wine “Alte Reben.” Müller has enjoyed some especially enthusiastic press from Germany-based critics and his wines are now, like those of Hofgut Falkenstein, regularly sold out within Germany soon after release, so it is a good thing for US Riesling enthusiasts that he has a stateside importer, and some half-dozen of his 2018s are still readily available in US markets as of mid-2020. I would be remiss not to emphasize that the newness of my acquaintance with Stefan Müller’s wines means that my prognoses of ageworthiness are based on intuition rather than on any experience with their track record.

From Saar Riesling 2018: Beating the Heat (Jul 2020) by David Schildknecht

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2018 Riesling Krettnacher Altenberg Spätlese feinherb

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2018 Riesling Niedermenniger Sonnenberg Spätlese Alte Reben

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Color: White

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2018 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg trocken

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2018 Riesling Niedermenniger Sonnenberg Kabinett Alte Reben

Release Price: $24

Color: White

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2018 Riesling Niedermenniger Sonnenberg Spätlese feinherb

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2018 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Auslese

Release Price: $36

Color: Sweet White

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2018 Riesling Krettnacher Altenberg Kabinett

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2018 Riesling Krettnacher Altenberg Beerenauslese

Color: Sweet White

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2018 Riesling Niedermenniger Herrenberg Auslese

Color: Sweet White

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2018 Riesling Krettnacher Euchariusberg Spätlese

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Color: Sweet White

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2018 Riesling feinherb

Color: White

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2018 Riesling feinherb Tandem A.P. #26

Color: White

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2018 Riesling trocken

Release Price: $22

Color: White

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