Well, occasionally life doesn’t suck, and that holds even more true when you get to drink some Raveneau and Egon Muller totally unexpectedly.
I had dinner with a small group of friends yesterday that I thought was just going to be a couple bottles of wine and some hanging out, instead it turned into a bunch of incredible bottles of wine and 120 oysters. I was invited sort of last minute so I didn’t know if people were bringing anything and my two friends, like absolute legends, were kind enough to get 10 dozen oysters as well as making some mignonette and bringing a really kickass super horseradishy cocktail sauce that was amazing to put a little drop of on the oysters.
The people who were hosting us and providing the wine then seemed to follow suit with the wine because holy shit, you don’t get to taste truly superlative wines all the time unless you’re Mchang or something.
**NV Charles Heidsieck Brit Reserve, Champagne**- A really great little bottle of bubbles, this cepage is usually 40/40/20 Pinot Noir/Chardonnay/Pinot Meunier and typically made of 50% reserve wines and was delightfully crisp and slightly citrusy with a really enjoyable level of yeasty/briochey notes to go with the oysters.
**2020 Famille Grossot Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume, Burgundy**- Another classic oyster pairing, Chablis, this little hill smack-dab in the middle of France, always seems to impart a fantastic ocean breeze on its wines and this one is no exception. Lemon juice and lemon oil, lime juice, a touch of a chicken stock umami characteristic and that ocean smell of salty breeze all coupled with a nice minerality make this one enjoyable and affordable bottle of Chardonnay.
**2009 Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Foret, Burgundy**- I realized I need to complain about life a lot less when I got to this dinner and saw all the oysters and the host handed me a glass of champagne. I realized I shouldn’t complain at all really when this bottle showed up. Man, how do you even explain Raveneau. It’s not easy to establish yourself as the clear and obvious leader of a vineyard, particularly in Burgundy. Outside of monopoles, arguments can be made for who makes the “best” bottling of a particular vineyard for all of them, even with people paying DRC monopole-level prices for things like Rousseau Chambertin.
It’s all the more impressive then that Raveneau has managed to do this with the entire Chablis AOC. I don’t believe this reign will last forever, with producers like Dauvissat and Defaix nipping at his heels more and more each year, however when this was bottled, he really was in a category truly of his own.
Immense concentrated citrus, lemon, lime, naval orange, all in juice, oil, and skin forms, along with a roasted chicken and white truffle umami with this unbelievable power to it. It really is like someone accidentally filled this bottle up 5 times and decided to cover their tracks by getting rid of the water.
**2014 Benjamin Leroux Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres, Cote de Beaune, Burgundy**- My undisputed favorite vineyard in Burgundy, Genevrieres just pushes all my buttons in exactly the right way. Just north of the other two more famous Meursault 1er crus Charmes and Perrieres, when it’s done right these wines develop a fantastic green apple and hazelnut characteristic, often accompanied by caramel, salinity, white truffle, and a citrusy acidity and Benjamin Leroux just *nails it with this one.
**2018 Weingut Prager Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Ried Achleiten “Stokkultur”, Wachau, Austria**- And who says German language labeling conventions are confusing! This bottle was something I *definitely* wasn’t expecting but was delighted to see as wines like this, even in an area that *grows* gruner veltliner, are remarkably rare for me to come across. This one, by Weingut Prager, is from the single vineyard Achleiten (ried Achleiten) and grown to the highest ripeness level for Wachau wines (Smaragd), but it also has the non-offical designation “Stokkultur”. This is in reference to the absolutely tiny plot (0.3 hectares) of vines that are trained on the pre-1950 method of using a stake rather than a row of trellises on these vines planted in 1938.
What an amazing Gruner Veltliner. In a far more familiar way than I was expecting, this had chicken/pork umami characteristics that reminded me quite a bit of two Chablis we had just tasted. Among a sea of infinitely drinkable crown-capped 1L bottles of Gruner out there, it’s expressions like this that truly show what the grape is capable of. Like a lot of Gruners, notes of green apple, pear, and lime are here, but unlike a lot of Gruners, they’re not dominating, and they’re not alone. Concentrated umami flavored and minerality coupled with a graceful but powerful acidity really help to elevate this wine and extend the finish while notes like white/pink peppercorns and ripe green bell pepper make it thoroughly enjoyable.
**2018 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Ried Heiligenstein, Kamtal, Austria**- Another bottle I wasn’t quite expecting, this ended up being one of my favorite wines of the night and yet more proof of how Austria continues to fly under the radar. This vineyard (Heiligenstein) and the one from the previous bottle (Achleiten) are both considered Erste Lage, or 1er/premier cru quality and it shows in the wine. This bottle had some fantastic smokey petrol on the nose that was accented with so much citrus and stone fruit.
Just like you read about when it comes to Austrian white wines of this caliber, the power and control you get being handled so gracefully seems like it should be paradoxical but it’s right there. Lemon, lime, and orange are singing their traditional Riesling roles while green apple, asian pear, and starfruit joined the choir. Once again we’re experiencing a situation where they accidently quadrupled the concentration of a normal Riesling because the notes are all so pure, defined, and long lasting. The sturdy acidity and minerality help solidify this as just a top-tier Riesling, and at a fraction of the price of some of the more sought after dry Rieslings from Germany.
**2016 Weingut Egon Muller Scharzhofherger Riesling Kabinett, Saar Valley, Germany**- Last, but the opposite of least we have one of my favorite white wines of all time. Located on a hill in a side valley that’s not on the river, or any water whatsoever, this vineyard makes the ingredients for magic potions and Egon Muller crafts them.
Like Raveneau, it has been very easy to say Egon Muller has been in a league of his own for a long time, however also like Raveneau, producers like Van Volxen are approaching and sometimes meeting that level more and more each year.
One of the things that blew me away when I first had Egon Muller and still blows me away now was that the minerality and the acidity feel like the same thing. It’s hard to describe, but normally the acidity seems like it’s tied to the fruit notes and the minerality is just its own thing, but here it feels like someone is just adding scoops of powdered limestone to the wine or something.
Lemon, lime, and oranges are here, of course, but the other fruits; I mean it just doesn’t get old. Guava, prickly pear, cactus fruit, lychee, starfruit, pineapple, asian pear, pink lady apples, white peach, white plum and plum skin, cantaloupe, I mean the list just goes on and on.
As a Kabinett you’d expect there to be a little sweetness but the sheer amount of densely packed flavors and acidity make it seem like this is off-dry at best which is *exactly* how I love my Rieslings.
I’ve only had these wines a handful of times and I have I say I cherish it every time.
1 Comment
Well, occasionally life doesn’t suck, and that holds even more true when you get to drink some Raveneau and Egon Muller totally unexpectedly.
I had dinner with a small group of friends yesterday that I thought was just going to be a couple bottles of wine and some hanging out, instead it turned into a bunch of incredible bottles of wine and 120 oysters. I was invited sort of last minute so I didn’t know if people were bringing anything and my two friends, like absolute legends, were kind enough to get 10 dozen oysters as well as making some mignonette and bringing a really kickass super horseradishy cocktail sauce that was amazing to put a little drop of on the oysters.
The people who were hosting us and providing the wine then seemed to follow suit with the wine because holy shit, you don’t get to taste truly superlative wines all the time unless you’re Mchang or something.
**NV Charles Heidsieck Brit Reserve, Champagne**- A really great little bottle of bubbles, this cepage is usually 40/40/20 Pinot Noir/Chardonnay/Pinot Meunier and typically made of 50% reserve wines and was delightfully crisp and slightly citrusy with a really enjoyable level of yeasty/briochey notes to go with the oysters.
**2020 Famille Grossot Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume, Burgundy**- Another classic oyster pairing, Chablis, this little hill smack-dab in the middle of France, always seems to impart a fantastic ocean breeze on its wines and this one is no exception. Lemon juice and lemon oil, lime juice, a touch of a chicken stock umami characteristic and that ocean smell of salty breeze all coupled with a nice minerality make this one enjoyable and affordable bottle of Chardonnay.
**2009 Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Foret, Burgundy**- I realized I need to complain about life a lot less when I got to this dinner and saw all the oysters and the host handed me a glass of champagne. I realized I shouldn’t complain at all really when this bottle showed up. Man, how do you even explain Raveneau. It’s not easy to establish yourself as the clear and obvious leader of a vineyard, particularly in Burgundy. Outside of monopoles, arguments can be made for who makes the “best” bottling of a particular vineyard for all of them, even with people paying DRC monopole-level prices for things like Rousseau Chambertin.
It’s all the more impressive then that Raveneau has managed to do this with the entire Chablis AOC. I don’t believe this reign will last forever, with producers like Dauvissat and Defaix nipping at his heels more and more each year, however when this was bottled, he really was in a category truly of his own.
Immense concentrated citrus, lemon, lime, naval orange, all in juice, oil, and skin forms, along with a roasted chicken and white truffle umami with this unbelievable power to it. It really is like someone accidentally filled this bottle up 5 times and decided to cover their tracks by getting rid of the water.
**2014 Benjamin Leroux Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres, Cote de Beaune, Burgundy**- My undisputed favorite vineyard in Burgundy, Genevrieres just pushes all my buttons in exactly the right way. Just north of the other two more famous Meursault 1er crus Charmes and Perrieres, when it’s done right these wines develop a fantastic green apple and hazelnut characteristic, often accompanied by caramel, salinity, white truffle, and a citrusy acidity and Benjamin Leroux just *nails it with this one.
**2018 Weingut Prager Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Ried Achleiten “Stokkultur”, Wachau, Austria**- And who says German language labeling conventions are confusing! This bottle was something I *definitely* wasn’t expecting but was delighted to see as wines like this, even in an area that *grows* gruner veltliner, are remarkably rare for me to come across. This one, by Weingut Prager, is from the single vineyard Achleiten (ried Achleiten) and grown to the highest ripeness level for Wachau wines (Smaragd), but it also has the non-offical designation “Stokkultur”. This is in reference to the absolutely tiny plot (0.3 hectares) of vines that are trained on the pre-1950 method of using a stake rather than a row of trellises on these vines planted in 1938.
What an amazing Gruner Veltliner. In a far more familiar way than I was expecting, this had chicken/pork umami characteristics that reminded me quite a bit of two Chablis we had just tasted. Among a sea of infinitely drinkable crown-capped 1L bottles of Gruner out there, it’s expressions like this that truly show what the grape is capable of. Like a lot of Gruners, notes of green apple, pear, and lime are here, but unlike a lot of Gruners, they’re not dominating, and they’re not alone. Concentrated umami flavored and minerality coupled with a graceful but powerful acidity really help to elevate this wine and extend the finish while notes like white/pink peppercorns and ripe green bell pepper make it thoroughly enjoyable.
**2018 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Ried Heiligenstein, Kamtal, Austria**- Another bottle I wasn’t quite expecting, this ended up being one of my favorite wines of the night and yet more proof of how Austria continues to fly under the radar. This vineyard (Heiligenstein) and the one from the previous bottle (Achleiten) are both considered Erste Lage, or 1er/premier cru quality and it shows in the wine. This bottle had some fantastic smokey petrol on the nose that was accented with so much citrus and stone fruit.
Just like you read about when it comes to Austrian white wines of this caliber, the power and control you get being handled so gracefully seems like it should be paradoxical but it’s right there. Lemon, lime, and orange are singing their traditional Riesling roles while green apple, asian pear, and starfruit joined the choir. Once again we’re experiencing a situation where they accidently quadrupled the concentration of a normal Riesling because the notes are all so pure, defined, and long lasting. The sturdy acidity and minerality help solidify this as just a top-tier Riesling, and at a fraction of the price of some of the more sought after dry Rieslings from Germany.
**2016 Weingut Egon Muller Scharzhofherger Riesling Kabinett, Saar Valley, Germany**- Last, but the opposite of least we have one of my favorite white wines of all time. Located on a hill in a side valley that’s not on the river, or any water whatsoever, this vineyard makes the ingredients for magic potions and Egon Muller crafts them.
Like Raveneau, it has been very easy to say Egon Muller has been in a league of his own for a long time, however also like Raveneau, producers like Van Volxen are approaching and sometimes meeting that level more and more each year.
One of the things that blew me away when I first had Egon Muller and still blows me away now was that the minerality and the acidity feel like the same thing. It’s hard to describe, but normally the acidity seems like it’s tied to the fruit notes and the minerality is just its own thing, but here it feels like someone is just adding scoops of powdered limestone to the wine or something.
Lemon, lime, and oranges are here, of course, but the other fruits; I mean it just doesn’t get old. Guava, prickly pear, cactus fruit, lychee, starfruit, pineapple, asian pear, pink lady apples, white peach, white plum and plum skin, cantaloupe, I mean the list just goes on and on.
As a Kabinett you’d expect there to be a little sweetness but the sheer amount of densely packed flavors and acidity make it seem like this is off-dry at best which is *exactly* how I love my Rieslings.
I’ve only had these wines a handful of times and I have I say I cherish it every time.