Müller, Stefan

  • Saar, Mosel, Germany
Stefan Müller
  • Stefan Müller delivered handsomely in 2018. His wines are packed with racy acidity and fresh flavors. While they show indeed a little bit more flesh on the bone than in recent vintages, they remain utterly commendable. The fruity-styled wines (Kabinett and Spätlese) are particularly successful and among the finest of the vintage. The off-dry wines are superbly racy and spicy and the Auslese are luscious yet focused and firm. This Estate is now among the finest of the region, and a must address for acid-affine lovers of Saar Riesling."

    —Mosel Fine Wine Review

  • The discovery of the year comes from the Mosel region, more precisely from the Saar. 28-year-old Stefan Müller is a young man, but he makes wines like an old hand. He invents nothing new and yet is resolutely modern. With wines that tell of craftsmanship and origin, he brings the unknown terroir of the Saar into the spotlight... This young winegrower will belong among the greats in ten years.”

    —Gault Millau Wine Guide Discovery of the Year 2017

  • The 2017 collection completely wipes out anything he produced so far. Simply put, [Muller] produced one of the finest collections of the vintage."

    —Mosel Fine Wine Review

The Müller estate consists of 10 hectares, mostly Riesling (90% of their holdings) and a little Pinot, both Noir and Blanc. Everything is hand-harvested on rolling hillsides teeming with life and vegetation. The vines see no herbicides and no pesticides—only some fungicide when needed. 

The labels depict topographical maps of each vineyard. The most well-known site they have is Krettnacher Altenberg—mainly blue slate and the local green slate known as Diabas (cf. Zilliken’s vineyards). Their largest holding is the Euchariusberg (pronounced oy-sharius-berg) where they have 5 hectares of vines planted in 1944 and 1964. This is a rambling, diverse terroir from which Stefan derives emphatically delicious Rieslings, especially in sweet prädikats. The parcels in Niedermennig are red slate and contain many old, ungrafted vines. Though less well known than the others, the Niedermenniger sites are hidden gems of extraordinary quality and history which deserve a brighter spotlight shone on them. At Bowler we focus on these sites with great excitement. 

In the cellar, Müller also follows a surprisingly ad hoc usage of barrels and tanks, with no strict design for which wines go in what vessel; however, once a wine starts fermentation in one tank or barrel, it ages in that same vessel until completion. There is no chaptalization, and all wines ferment with wild yeast; sulfur is only added at bottling. In other words, Stefan skews organic at his small estate, but does not adhere strictly to the regimen that word implies: he is, in a word, pragmatic. The wines at Müller are exquisitely balanced, succulent, wildly aromatic, unapologetically ripe, and true to the Saar.

Tour of Weingut Müller
Image Producer PRODUCT Description Country / Region

DB3501-23
Sustainable
Müller, Stefan Riesling Trocken
2023
Riesling
8.3g/l RS and 8.5g/l acidity. The Muller Estate Trocken comes this year from old vines from 1983 at the top of the Niedermenniger...
Germany

DB3503-23
Sustainable
Müller, Stefan Riesling Feinherb Herrenberg
2023
Riesling
25g/l RS, 9.8g acid, 10% alc. A red slate site like the Sonnenberg, picked from a single parcel of vines from 1969. Light and fresh with a...
Germany

DB3504-23
Sustainable
Müller, Stefan Riesling Kabinett Sonnenberg "Alte Reben"
2023
Riesling
48g/l RS, 10.4g acid, 8.5% alc. Stefan Müller holds vineyards in the villages of Niedermennig and Krettnach. One of his prized sites is a...
Germany

DB3652-23
Sustainable
Müller, Stefan Riesling Kabinett Krettnacher Euchariusberg
2023
Riesling
Euchariusberg is Muller's largest parcel (5.1ha), a rambling site of grey slate and quartz with many old vines still planted. 44.2g/l RS,...
Germany

DB3520-23
Sustainable
Müller, Stefan Riesling Spätlese "Alte Reben 1944" Euchariusberg
2023
Riesling
70g/l RS, 10.5g acid, 8% alc. Harvested on 75-year-old un-grafted vines in the southfacing Fossem part of the vineyard, and was fermented...
Germany

DB3506-23
Sustainable
Müller, Stefan Riesling Auslese Euchariusberg
2023
Riesling
80g/l RS, 10.2g acid, 7.5% alc. The Krettnacher Euchariusberg Auslese is harvested from vines planted in 1944 and 1964 in the privileged...
Germany