WTN: Seriously funky evening part one: Muster

Today, among other lovely wines, I tasted two from Sepp & Maria Muster from Südsteiermark, Austria. The first was a fairly straightforward, un-freakish, but very well made Gelber Muskateller 2008. It was absolutely lovely, with strong mineral tones to the grapey, rosewater scents; dry, crisp, and even quite forceful for a Muskateller. Endless, pure, mineral aftertaste. Lovely, but I did wonder why the host of this tasting (of Funky Wine Imports) told me to expect something really weird even though he knows of my tolerance for the weirder end of the wine spectrum.

But the next second wine from Muster made it all clear. It is a really freaky, funky "orange" wine called Erde 2007, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Morillon (the local name for Chardonnay). I loved it, but it was so extreme that it did take a while for me to adjust my thinking to it. But when I managed that, this was delightful and moreish (and the host kindly let me take the drop left over home ).

It is aged for 12 months in an amphora (and sees skin contact, of course); then the skins are removed and it is aged a further 12 months in a neutral barrel. The packaging is quite unusual also, being not bottled but clayed.

Orange. Rustic, wild, earthy aroma - if it doesn't stretch the imagination too much, it smells like citrus marmalade without marmalade's sweetness. Fairly rich, nicely acidic, ferociously tannic for a "white" wine, yet it seems wonderfully drinkable and even moreish once I manage to wrap my head around everything unexpected.

[David M. Bueker]

Austrian Muskateller is one of my hidden treasures.

As for the orange wine - it's an interesting genre, though I hope it does not reach stratospheric, cult-like pricing.

My visit at the winery of Sepp Muster in 2008 was for me a real experience. Some of his wines are probably not my cup of coffee but after two hours, the more I could listen and discuss with him about his philosophy, the better I could at least understand his wines. It is not very easy to find them on the market, even in Austria he is being considered as out of mainstream. And the leading austrian wine guides "Falstaff" and "Vinaria" do not mention any word about him. If it is so because of his special kind of wines or maybe his unwillingness to support financially these guides - I don´t know. Certainly the wines are worth mentioning and tasting as well. And Sepp, he is for me, although strange, but real personality. http://www.weingutmuster.com - see his hands above on the webb site...

David, sadly I heard that at least in Finland the Erde would approach stratospheric pricing. If the importer would list it in Alko's special order selection, it would come to about 50€ / bottle.

Stanislav, welcome! I thought those guides worked solely by samples submitted to them? I am very thankful for such wines out of the mainstream. Many of them inevitably will not be to one's taste, but I get experiences like this Erde often enough that I am very willing to experiment with the freaky side of wine.

Otto, thanks for welcome! After my ten years gap I am glad to be on WLDG back again.

I find the mentioned wineguides very useful, full of helpful information, but not complete. Recently I spoke to an important austrian winegrower, he was ready to submit his wines to them, but in adition to that he was asked to pay not negligible € amount. So he refused to be part of the deal. Fortunately, Austria is not so big and these winegrowers are not getting lost for the public. Quality counts !

It was possible for me to buy several bottles of Sepp Muster´s wines on the market, but more or less only "regular" wines. I like to taste the off stream wines as well, those of Muster I could buy at the winery, it is not so far from us. But when I come to austrian Steiermark, I try to visit always some new growers and the previous are sometimes "forgotten"