The 2012 Riesling Signature from Muré
Relative to many of the people I know in the wine trade I was a latecomer to Riesling, a white wine often thought of as sweet and best known as coming from Germany. Even today, Riesling, mostly from Germany, comprises a very small part of my cellar, and it is a shame because Riesling is produced in many parts of the world, can come in many styles and can provide a truly profound wine experience.
Several weeks ago, Julie and I went to the Twisted Vine, a very interesting wine shop in the Grandview neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. The Twisted Vine hosts a wine bar offering three-glass flights of white and red wines every Thursday through Saturday evening.
The flights usually represent a couple of different price points, and also often feature unique and interesting selections. The night we were there, the flights consisted of wines brought in by a small import company that has as its mission to find wines that are family made with a focused respect for terroir.
A Little About Alsace
I ordered the flight of white wines, three Rieslings from Domaine Muré, from the Rouffach region in Alsace, France. Alsace is a 60-mile long wine region squeezed between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine River along the German border in northeast France. Alsace is divided into the Bas-Rhin, which is roughly the northern half of Alsace, and the Haut-Rhin, the southern half, producing the higher quality Alsatian wines. The Muré family has been making wine in Rouffach, in the Haut-Rhin, since the 1650s.
French wine law is a codification of viticultural and vinicultural practices honed over centuries known as the appellation d’origine contrôlée or AOC system. It establishes quality classifications and designates the quality of each vineyard based on the quality of the wine produced from each vineyard over hundreds of years. Think of them as historical averages, designating specific geographic areas known over time to produce wines of a particular level of quality.
We must also recognize that in any given vintage the weather or a winemaker can diminish the quality of a Grand Cru or enhance the quality of a lesser wine. Also, the quality differentials are often slight, as is the case with these three Muré selections. All three are very well made, very high quality wines.
The three Muré Rieslings in the flight represent different quality classifications and price points. The Muré Riesling Signature ($19.99) and the Muré Riesling Cote de Rouffach ($27.99) are both AOC Alsace, the lower of the two quality ratings in Alsace. The Muré Riesling Clos St. Landelin ($42.99) is classified AOC Alsace Grand Cru, the higher quality classification, and is made from fruit grown in the exclusive vineyard of St. Landelin.
The Judgment
By a very small margin, the Cote de Rouffach was my least favorite of the three because its finish was shorter than the others, that is, when I swallowed the wine the pleasant flavors did not linger on the palate as they did with the other wines. A longer finish prolongs the pleasure one derives from drinking a good wine, and can lead the drinker to the next taste.
The Grand Cru was the best of the three. It had the longest finish, and it was slightly more complex than the Signature, and if money were no object, you really should try the Grand Cru. But for the money, the Signature is the best buy wine.
Prior to tasting the wines I had the opportunity to talk with the national sales manager for the Gargouille Collection, the importer of the Muré wines. We discussed that all wine drinkers, whether their usual drink is a $15 California Zinfandel or a $200 Premier Cru Burgundy, seem to be looking for a wine that delivers more than what they paid for it. The Muré Riesling Signature hits a home run, easily drinking like a wine you might expect to cost $40 or even $50 dollars.
The 2012 Signature is made from a selection of grapes hand-picked from vineyards in Rouffach, Westhalten and Soultzmatt, all in the Haut-Rhin in southern Alsace. Fermentation is long, using native yeasts, in very large neutral wood barrels before the wine ages for ten months in stainless steel. The long fermentation leaves very little residual sugar, just 2.4 grams per liter as compared to, say, an average German dry (Trocken) Riesling which may have nine grams per liter of residual sugar. That is to say, this wine is not sweet. The use of a neutral wood fermenter and aging in stainless steel means that wood has no influence on this wine. You are tasting the essence of the grape and the soil and weather in which it was grown.
The 2012 Muré Riesling Signature is complex and powerful on the nose; it is a real joy just to smell this wine. It has a little smoke, a little pear and apple, a little petrol, and a blast of sweetness that impressed me as something like honey. As I said before, this wine is not sweet, containing very little residual sugar, but perhaps as a carry-over effect of the powerful honey-like sweetness on nose, it gives an impression of sweetness on the palate that provides a beautiful counterbalance to its flinty mineral character and steely acid. This wine feels wonderful in the mouth and has a very nice finish that invites the drinker to take that next sip.
The 2012 Muré Riesling Signature is available at the Twisted Vine for $19.99 and is worth every penny and more. I would rate this wine 90+ out of 100 or a strong A-.
The Twisted Vine, One of Columbus’ Many Great Wine Shops
mark, nice write-up on Riesling. Your information is helpful and your writing style is even more so. I like the way you remind me of the meaning of your words, like your description of “finish.” Of course, I generally know what it means, but your definition made me pause for a moment and consider how I like to “pause” when drinking and give due credit to finish as well as taste, smell, mouth feel and comparative characteristics. See you at Polar Q if not before, jim