July 15, 2023 - Really great and complex, as HGS-era M-C invariably is. This shows ripe exotic fruit, some burnt sugar, ginger, spices, and all sorts of other goodness. Sweetness is moderate and finish is long. On a nice maturity plateau.
April 12, 2019 - Pale yellow color with a bouquet and flavor of pear-apples and citrus with nice depth and nuance and a long finish. Very nice supporting acidity. Lovely wine to complement the crab extravaganza at the Dakota at the end of a very busy week. Muller-Catoir is one of my favorite German winemakers, along with Joseph Christoffel.
May 4, 2018 - Casual Offline with the GMs: Mango, pear, pineapple and some apricot and botrytis aromas. Well balanced on the palate, this had good acidity and a little grip. Fresh and still quite youthful, this will easily go another 5-10 years and hopefully take on a little more complexity.
March 25, 2018 - Not much nose
Stewed apricot, a little tart.
November 5, 2017 - Lovely wine in its prime. The color wasn't showing as much age as I thought it might, and suggested at least a few more years at this level. What impressed about this wine was its soft, harmonious balance and its mouth-filling expression of M-C fruit and spice. Yes, it could have had a little more sugar/acid intensity, but no one was complaining. Very nice. From .375.
October 19, 2017 - This has become more elegant and less blowsy, in a good spot right now. No reason to wait any longer.
January 26, 2017 - Osechi at Naoki Sushi (Chicago, IL): From half-bottle. A bit advanced for what it ought to be, but not over-the-hill. Likely the product of warm storage. Ah well, it's still quite the proper Mueller-Catoir, with those zany fruit flavours. There's apricot and other ripe stone fruit, and a crazy amount of brown spice as well. Rich and thick, with quite a bit of sugar, but sufficient counterbalancing acidity. Probably attributable to poor storage though, this had lost most of the freshness and seemed just slightly tired.
November 11, 2016 - #17-99, 9% abv. And again, HGS proves that he is one of the best winemakers to have ever lived. The nose here is wild and exotic, with tons of botrytis spice and ripe stone fruit. The intensity here makes you think that this is going to be a 200 g/L-Kracher-style bomb, but no, the palate is simply refined and balanced. Sweet, but not overly so -- balanced by very ripe fruit and lots and lots of spice. Incredibly rich, but at the same time, plenty of acidic lift. Superb.
November 19, 2015 - SLDS November 2015: Ginger, lime, orange and some botrytis. Superb balance, the sweetness does come through but it is really well integrated with the acidity. Youthful but drinking really nicely.
June 28, 2015 - Drinking beautifully. Dessert sweetness, viscosity, impeccable balance.