EGON MÜLLER AND HIS EXTRAORDINARY GREYHOUND

More than eleven years ago of this experience. We would then be about forty years old.

If I remember correctly, it was the end of a great trip to the German Moselle, where we visited the best in their wineries, walked their vineyards, had lunch in their homes and drank their wines.

Colossi like Fritz Haag, Heymann-Lowestein, Maximin Grunhaus, Von Kesenstal, Grans Fassian, Joh Jos Prum ...

This was my second trip to Germany. The first, a couple of years before was equally unforgettable in Reinghau with George Breuer, Nahe with Donhoff, Palatinate with Christman, Burklin Wolf, Basermann Jordan or Rebholz ...

The point is that this trip to the Moselle, which began sweating like dogs when lowering the steep vineyard of Uhlen, next to Heymann, the “terroirist”, in the low Moselle, and very close to the Rhin, and then take their slate wines with his family, wines to dance, going upriver to enjoy a memorable lunch in the mythical vineyard of Juffer-Sohnenhur, with Fritz Haag’s family or later withdrawing to the deep silence and meditation in Maximin Grunhaus ... had a unique gold brooch ... at home of Egon Müller, looking out the window at his mythical Scharzhofberger vineyard.

I am going to translate my friend's reflection on that memorable experience, but first I want, as a prologue, to make some reflections of my own vintage that I think will be left over in the case of those who have already had the luck to really get excited at some great wines of the world, but not so with many others.

And I want to clarify this as a precaution, because ignorance can sometimes be very daring, and the most unsuspecting people could happen to the first few paragraphs that they could think that "come on guy ... too hyperbolic ... it is only wine ... "

I would like to tell them that "they are right", in fact, just as words are only words and linked in a certain way, they make up a poem, or that music is "only sound".

To you, who think that, I say: there are at least "two worlds of wine" (there are more, but it is worth simplification), that of the wineries that, industrially, manufacture a liquid based on grape juice that we call wine, they wrap it in tons of marketing and place it on the lines trying to "dislike as little as possible to as many people as possible" and then there is another different world, that of those who, like a writer does through his books , or a painter with his paintings, tries to "express himself" through his wines. I will not go into complex issues such as "quality", I will simply leave it here.

As you will see, I am “preventing” you towards a text full of passion, but not of the first-time passion of a teenager (any of the main current Spanish political leaders, for example) full of hormones that has just fallen in love, but more similar to the one who gets excited reading Unamuno in his Tragic Feeling of Life, either Nietzsche, Deleuze or Walt Whitman, or is delighted in the museum watching a work by Caravaggio, or is excited by a Verdi sonata. No, I am not referring to the "emotion" felt by the jury members on duty in the reality show looking for a close-up of the camera ... is something else.

A renowned Italian wine critic said: "When you judge a wine, try to do it as a lover and not as a gynecologist." You can analyze a picture of Botticelli by explaining the intensities and frequencies of the light absorbed and reflected in its colors, scientifically, but all that science will not help you to enjoy the beauty of “The Birth of Spring”. In case you have not suspected yet, indeed, I am making a fierce, direct and open criticism of everything around WSET and derivatives. I am very tired of seeing courses and more courses where people "teach" everything, except what really matters. And this is not a problem in the world of wine, it is general and it is worldwide (I am not critical of the courses themselves, because knowledge always matters, always very welcome, but the “attitude” that can motivate and, in fact, motivates a large number of those who attend these courses, both instructors and students).

We are only human beings, neither more nor less and we have abilities and ways of perceiving. That's why we don't understand quantum mechanics or Schrödinger's cat, but Shakespeare and Cervantes do, we get lost in the world of wave and particle depending on the observer, but we get excited about good music and that's why this reflection of my friend doesn't It is cloying and hyperbolic ... because thinking and feeling is inseparable and almost one thing.

And yes, it happens to my friend like me, every wine that gets him excited, he puts it on the top of the podium, an absolute gold medal ... until the next reflection on the next exciting wine, which will also be absolute gold and so , almost without realizing it, we live in a world of gold medalists, absolute champions, a world without "Parker points" ... that, my friends, is called passion and both, after the fifties, we have plenty of it.

As the world goes, it is impossible not to be very worried and a little sad. Think about it, we have bet everything on our technological progress, stunning and flattering at the same time, but we are becoming fools and idiots. Perhaps one of the few salvation options we have is to recover, at least the best who was someday in the past, to the Humanities.

Toronto, Ontario (Canada) end of summer 2019

Salvador Lopez

"EGON MÜLLER. ETERNITY AND THE EXTRAORDINARY GREYHOUND.”

A few months ago, I had an Exclusive, short but very intense. The short was for the text. It was titled "Egon Müller. There are four words left over”, and the text was:

“Don't think. Uncork. Drink. "

The intensity was because of the immense quality of the wines. But everything changes in a precise moment. Our friend Michael Wöhr organizes a wonderful trip to Moselle, and we visit the best wineries: Löwenstein, F. Haag, Grans-Fassian, M. Grünhaus, Von Kesselstatt ..., with a wonderful and unforgettable trip end in Egon Müller. Since that day two months have passed, the time needed to be aware of the immense pleasure I have of knowing the winery and its wines. And I do not mean to collect in a notebook vintages and brief tasting notes, something very fashionable lately, but to understand and enjoy them fully.

Until about five years ago I knew that Egon Müller wines were the most expensive white wines in the world, that were sold at auctions, something that struck us because of our weak economy, and that they were Riesling sweet wines from the Moselle.

More than four years ago, the importer Vins Alemanys held its annual fair at the Torre de Can Roca, in Gerona. In the courtyard, on the right, the wineries of Palatinate, Rheingau, Nahe ..., and Moselle, followed by the new, Egon Müller, the last one. We tasted more than 100 wines, and the last three, those of Egon Müller, left us in silence. They were different from everyone. And I didn't have it easy. After the intensity of Burklin, the purity of Dönnhoff and the elegance of Fritz Haag, we find some wines that synthesized all the above with an unknown plus of transparency. Wines as crystalline as diamonds, simultaneously a treasure of nature and a work of art of men.

From then until our trip my relationship with Egon Müller wines has been very satisfactory. I have read a lot, I have uncorked what I have been able, I have tasted everything possible etc ... More than 20 different wines, all of the highest quality. And yet I had the feeling that I was missing something to fully enjoy them, and I didn't know what it was.

Now I think it was the proper wine mental maturity with this winery, something that much to be desired or uncorked is not necessarily acquired but is more related to the neural connections of the mind.

We arrive at the winery with enough time to visit, behind his mansion-cellar, the Scharzhofberger vineyard, one of the best in the world. Already there begins a very strong attraction, you start to relax, and you are willing to do everything. Everything was perfect in Egon Müller's house: friends, wife, two children, two dogs, the atmosphere and the eleven wines. A practically perfect selection.

In Egon Müller's living room, sitting in the wing chair, I close my eyes to relax for a few seconds, and thousands of tasting rooms, perfect combinations of steel and wood, ultra-modern design and large windows open to the vineyard pass through my mind, but as cold and clean as an surgery room. Suddenly the greyhound caresses itself with my thigh, and tells me:

"Wake up, the first wine arrives."

SCHARZHOF 2007 AND 2006.

It is their basic-generic wine, and it is a perfect demonstration of how these wines should be. It is as essential as the air we breathe, pure, light, transparent. It is the perfect wine to drink every day and at all hours. It does not require deep reflections or comparisons.

Inconsequential but very pleasant. In the great wineries of the world, generic wines are already extraordinary.

KABINET 2007 AND 1995.

With the first one, we understood, in an instant, the exceptional quality of the 2007 vintage. Buy, drink and keep 10-12 years. With 1995 we began to think how time goes by modeling these wines. As the sea breeze or the mountain wind, we are already beginning to be aware of the pleasure of the lightness of the air. A wine to fly. Fluency and thinness, but on a structure that, although at first glance seems fragile, is very consistent. In short, a perfect and transparent combination of delicacy and intensity.

Sitting on the couch I remembered another 95 of the Moselle. I understood Michael Wöhr's previous explanation, Grünhaus's male minerality versus F. Haag's female minerality, and deduced that Egon would be pure and wild mineralized, not a mixture of the previous two, but the sum of the two, plus virtues of Scharzhofberger. The three wines synthesize the end, already sweet, of winter and the beginning of spring.

We are in March, Grünhaus Abtsberg from day 1 to 15, F. Haag Juffer Sonnenuhr from 15 to 30, and Egon Scharzhofberger those days where the sun especially shines, it smells like flowers and the wind runs. Like when I go up to my house in Sierra Espuña and see the first flowers in the almond tree, pure, delicate, intense, fragrant, relaxing….

SPATLESE 2007 AND 1988.

For the first, buy, drink and save 20 years, and I'm sure you will be surprised. With 1988 you understand that Egon Müller is the impossible balance between acidity and sugar, between youth and fullness. As fresh and pleasant as a caress and a kiss. And time turns upside down, 1988 at age 20 is as clean and transparent as dawn, like water, as if it were only 3-4 years old. Like our own life, a fantastic balance between our age and our mind.

Sitting on the couch I compared several vintages of Egon Spatlese. It is a wine that always evolves for the better. It's always young, it's always spring, it's always April. In warmer vintages, with more botritis, such as 2003 and 1989, it reaches a wonderful coupage between youth (riesling and vineyard) and fullness (characteristics of the vintage). In the good vintages, such as 2005, 2002 and 1990, a natural balance is achieved, and the previous coupage becomes an indissoluble block of acidity-sugar-structure-minerality…. In some vintages, such as this 1988 and 1971, youth lengthens for decades, as if it never wanted to be lost, and only the passage of time brings complexity, elegance, harmony ..., reaching magic, beauty, pleasure ..., what we can never forget, because maybe we people want to find in these wines what we would like to achieve in our own lives.

AUSLESE 2007 AND 1976.

For the first, buy, drink and save 30 years, and I'm sure you will enjoy very intensely. 1976 is a masterpiece of nature, a real jewel, and Egon Müller has preserved it, has been able to keep it, without selling and without drinking, so that many friends can enjoy it. Tasting wine and you instantly understand the prestige of this region, this grape, this vineyard and this winery. He is 32 years old and is not an old wine, it is in fullness. An intense and powerful wine that masterfully combines the elegance and finesse of riesling with the minerality and acidity of the vineyard.

And I just wanted to compare it with Yquem 1976. Both manage to stop the passage of time, 32 years equals 10-12 in Yquem and 6-7 years in Egon Müller. This greater slowness of Egon is basically due to the greater acidity (5 or 6 in Yquem compared to the assumptions 9-11 of Egon, which never provides data), and the great difference in character between riesling and semillon, not influencing the small difference in sugar (120-130 grams in Yquem, and maybe 20-30 less in Egon). Yquem and Egon dominate time, and this is the great challenge of people, be aware that every day has exactly 24 hours, control and enjoy them, and overcome ideas as simple as "I lack time", "seize time", " I will do tomorrow ... ”

Will we be able to control time like Yquem and Egon?

Everything is very exciting. Egon Müller IV is in Denmark and his young wife, beautiful and relaxed, serves us the wines one by one, and we as if we were faithful waiting for an endless succession of sacred Host.

And in the absence of a protective Virgin, the greyhound was the guardian of this Shrine, he looked us straight in the eye and wanted to talk, explain the history of the vineyard, the vintage of 1976, its evolution in the bottle ... These are the sanctuaries and the greyhounds that I like!

AUSLESE GOLD CAPSULE 99.

Complexity, harmony and elegance perfect and absolute. A youth that literally invades our body, before which it is useless to resist. A visual and mental attraction as the best work of art, but unlike this one, the wine is tangible, it is touched, it feels, it is drunk, it enters our body. I think the only thing that can match such perfection is a woman, our woman.

Like the 1976 Auslese, this 1999 should be almost perfect by nature. But in this one, perhaps because of the experience it provides to prepare 23 more vintages of the same farm, Egon Müller wanted more and more, he wanted perfection and I think he has achieved it. For me the most perfect wine tasting. It is the perfect coupling between Nature and Man, between Scharzhofberger and Egon Müller.

Some speak, to define other wines, of "Joint Venture between God and man." And I totally disagree, since religion and its gods cannot take over the work and success of Nature and Men, written in capital letters, as they deserve.

With the 1999 Auslese Oro my comparisons lasted a few seconds. And they had hundreds of wines to compare, which is logical because of the closeness of the vintage, but they were useless and absurd. At that time the 1999 Gold Auslese, I considered it the best wine in the world and just wanted to enjoy it selfishly. The virtue of a 1999 Yquem is its lack of time.

The Auslese Oro is lacking much longer, but it is already exceptionally perfect. It cannot be compared with anything that exists on our planet. Maybe it would be the perfect wine for an interplanetary or intergalactic tasting.

And then came the eternal wines, which can be drunk throughout our lives, since the evolution of wine is slower than the evolution of people. There are very few wineries in the world, as in the case of Leroy in Burgundy, whose wines are always exceptional, with different phases of absolute plenitude happening. Egon Müller goes a little further, and perhaps it is the only winery in the world where we can talk about eternity. The Auslese Oro 1999 may be the last human wine or the first eternal wine, a doubt that will only resolve the passage of time.

BA GOLD 1995.

It was a wine that we didn't drink, and yet it made me think a lot. We all expected a quick and cold 10-minute visit, hopefully tasting a kabinet, something logical in wineries that do not receive any type of visits. It was very evident that everything was a dream, a luxury, the eternal wines were opened two by two, and everything was so normal. The most logical thing was that the next wine was the BA, but we were wrong.

And again, I looked at the greyhound, sitting in front of me, next to Juanjo, and not only because he lacked the cup to be one of us. I am convinced that he winked me his left eye, and with his eyes, staring at my eyes, he said: “I know what you do last night. As you drank two Egon Müller BA gold, you will pass directly to the Eiswein.” Then I thought that the greyhound could have a nervous tic because of the emotion of the moment, or some fly that bothered him, but I remember him very calm and without flies around. And the greyhound was right. Last night we made an unforgettable dinner in Trier. After some dry whites and a couple of reds, Palmer 1983 and Leoville, Les Cases 1990, the sweets arrived: J.J Prüm Auslese 1971 and Eiswein 1998, M. Grünhaus TBA 1998 and Egon Müller BA gold 1979 and 1995.

EISWEIN 1996.

Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Eiswein 1996 is a wine to drink with very small sips. And not because the bottle ran out, - even the greyhound knew that there was another bottle already uncorked - but because our mind is not prepared to process so much intensity of pleasure in such a short time. Imagine that the pleasure of an orgasm multiplied by 20, what would happen to us? could the mind collapse and self-destruct?

A wine of such magnitude, and price in line, was very good, great, with all the attributes of the best sweet wines in the world. But at that magical moment, framed between a perfect Auslese 99 gold and an immeasurable TBA 1995, I had the feeling that it was a bit lacking in complexity, as if the immense and intense structure (acidity, sugar, fat, citrus ...) did not allow the expression of the nuances, of all those details that lead directly to perfection. It was a wine of 100 points but analyzing separately all its components should be 115. Why was there that differential of 15 points?

Then I did not appreciate, perhaps because of the inexperience or emotion of the moment, that the only problem that Eiswein had to achieve perfection was that he was not at his best moment of consumption.

I do not mean that we have to wait 10-20 years for it to reach its fullness, something evident, but at this particular moment its intensity stood out in the face of subtlety, the power in the face of complexity. The rest of the wines were in very different stages of evolution, but they all openly showed the virtues of each phase: training in 2007, youth in 1999, fullness in 1995, 1988, 1976 and timeless in TBA 1995. The Eiswein 1996 was in an impressive timeless phase, but temporarily with limited expressiveness. This should not be an inconvenience, but an incentive to find it where it is and try to understand it as it really is. It is a perfect example that, when something is extraordinary, we must strive to achieve it, and if it is not the first chance, we must continue and look for new opportunities.

"What does it feel like to make such a wine?" And she replied, very calm, "cold."

For the first time I understood the importance of cold. She could have made a grandiloquent speech, but she was direct and forceful.

It was the culmination, the last requirement to achieve what you have been looking for, working all year long, looking for that final moment that allows you to make that great wine. The best vineyard, the best vines, the best viticulture, the greatest respect ..., everything perfect, but after all this something else is needed, the cold.

For a few seconds I thought that Eiswein depended on 2/3 of nature and 1/3 of Egon Müller, and the TBA exactly the other way around. And even that it would not be bad, as a grandiloquent holder, to identify Eiswein = Nature, and TBA = Man. But it is useless to try to separate the indissoluble, these eternal wines of Egon Müller are a conjunction of thousands of factors that allow to achieve perfection.

It is difficult to compare Egon Eiswein with other wines. The world of wine is plagued by Eiswein mostly of sad and painful quality. There is only one comparable Eiswein, although very different from Egon, which you all know: Dönnhoff Oberhauser Brucke. Dönnhoff's represents complexity, elegance, harmony, balance ..., achieved, apart from the time and vineyard factor, by the masterful work of its owner. Someone refers to Donnhoff as "God on Earth", and I, oblivious to the gods, think he is the best white winemaker in the world. Egon's Eiswein is different, has a huge structure, as much as TBA, but without botritis and logically less sugar, and when he manages to express himself, he will reach qualities unknown to wine lovers. Comparing these two wines (and even knowing that the 1996 Egon Müler is somewhat "unusual", due to the characteristics of the vintage), it is for real asshole, so I immediately go to the last wine.

TBA 1995.

Egon Müller Scharzhofberger TBA 1995. An unforgettable wine. I knew it existed, I knew and I was scared of its price, and maybe it was the only wine that, having not drunk it, I saw complicated to drink it. I never thought that on 05-14-08 I would be in the living room of Egon Müller's house drinking a TBA 1995. Luckily some very good things happen when you least expect it.

The wine was like the previous orgasm multiplied by 20, and although it seems strange, you end up with the agile and fresh mind, in polite manner you ask for another glass, and you wish that such pleasure never ends. I think that sentimental and sexual comparisons are necessary and very useful to explain and understand the sensations that a wine produces, since it is the only subject that understands almost 100% of humanity. We all know what a caress, a kiss, an orgasm ..., are blunt concepts that raise no doubt. I think the rest of the comparisons, (religious, sports, cultural, economic ...) are very vague, and understandable only for 4-5% of humanity. We all imagine the immeasurable pleasure of an orgasm multiplied by 20, and yet almost nobody understands the pleasure that it could be to meet God, climb the Annapurna, win the Pulitzer, own six oil towers in Alaska, etc.

The TBA 1995 is an eternal and perfect wine, with overwhelming expressiveness. It is logical that over time it will improve greatly, especially in the range of aromas and complexity in the mouth, but it is already at a time of exceptional consumption. It is a pity that the Taliban of the passage of time miss the sensations of this wine. The wine enters like a missile, full of nuclear charge, floods the whole mouth, and in an instant the whole brain. It leaves you silent. The mind, surprised by so much and such intense pleasure unknown, rethinks, in a few seconds, the valuation it had of all the sweet wines that you have tasted in your life.

And, in an instant, it becomes the world reference for sweet wines.

In an era where many already defend the virtues of thinness, fluidity, finesse, electricity ..., this TBA is mature, fatty, dense, tasty ... Perhaps we should think that generalizing is absurd, useless and unfair, and that each region, each vineyard, each grape, each winery, each wine, each vintage requires individual treatment. I am convinced that the TBA 1995 of Egon Müller is exactly as it should be, and responds to all the individualities: Moselle, Scharzhofberger, Riesling, Egon Müller, TBA 1995.

A few weeks ago, a good friend talked about RCP (price quality ratio in Spanish). At first, I thought it was a Romanée Conti- Petrus comparison, and I liked the idea. But it was the value for money, a very fashionable concept and that I do not understand. A wine like this 1995 TBA, which can cost around € 6000-7000, can it have a good RCP? I think so. Another thing is that my economy and my mind are able to assimilate it.

There are cheap wines, even € 5-10, of fatal RCP, since they are a real aggression (the evil alcohol, the bad taste, the waste of time, the excess of rudeness ...), except economically. In order for their RCP to be fair, they should pay us € 1,000 or € 2,000 per bottle of drink. However, let's think about the TBA 1995. A bottle, twelve glasses for twelve friends, great happy time, learn a lot, and all for € 500. An extraordinary RCP.

What should it cost to live fully a pleasure without a background, and remember it all your life?

I was wrong when I thought it was so expensive that it didn't deserve to be tasted. I simply demonstrated my ignorance, my lack of more passion and my much more lack of more money. Do not get confused, or justify yourself with RCP, a concept to bury definitively. RIP to RCP.

The 2005 TBA made me think about the mind-wine relationship, and its connection to perceive pleasure. We all know the immense complexity of the world of wine, and yet we think linearly, more like a computer than a man. We taste a wine, we analyze it briefly, we draw some conclusions, we think we know a little more, and so on. The logical thing for the mind would be to make a much deeper analysis (analyze, reflect, value, compare, extrapolate prediction ...), and thus realize that you know less, that you know practically nothing. Maybe the mind protects itself to allow itself to be happy, to have the feeling of knowing. When I tried the 1999 Gold Auslese, I thought "it's my perfect wine, I've finally found it". And I was happy.

Twenty minutes later, the 1995 TBA arrived and as its aroma was reaching my brain, I thought how ignorant I am. Then I was not aware, I felt a little strange, but now I am glad to have thought of my true ignorance and not of my supposed and attractive wisdom.

What had happened to me? The 1999 Gold Auslese was the perfect prototype of balance, harmony, elegance, beauty ... and a thousand other things. But the 1995 TBA was also, although it did not seem like it to the naked eye, because all its innumerable virtues were protected by a very hard shell, perhaps diamond, that will allow it to be eternal. To be able to enjoy it properly, unless you easily get hooked to its obvious and pleasant aromatic and gustatory intensity, the TBA requires us an important mental work, to think hard in a short time, penetrate that shell, to fully enjoy it. We all know how to do it:

knowing Mosel, the Riesling, the different vineyards and Scharzhofberger, the TBA in general, the best sweet wines in the world, the evolution in the bottle, the philosophy of Egon Müller, its wines, its viticulture, the characteristics of the last 15-20 vintages , remember (or, failing that, read instantly) tastings of thousands of wines ..., in short, the more you know, the better. Then an open mind, without prejudices, agile ... And the reward comes, some small conclusion of its own, useful only to realize how little you know. But I like this, I want to know very little to be learning all my life. I can't help it, I like to learn, know and enjoy.

It is useless to compare Egon's TBA with other wines. You could compare with 8  $500 bills, and check the pleasure provided by one and the other. We could think of two mixtures, as medieval alchemists, to confront Egon's TBA: the Yquem mixture (50% of 1988 currently, 30% of 1990 three years ago, 15% of 2001 within 6-8 years, and a 5% of 1967 before, now or later) and the Dönnhoff mix (65% of the Hermanshole TBA 1994 and the remaining 35% of Oberhauser Brucke Oro, 15% of 1998, 15% of 1995 and 5% of 1983).

We are approaching madness, and this is becoming worrying. It's time to uncork, sorry, to end.

In the search for eternal wines I have passed very different phases:

ProTBA, ProEiswein, ProTBA, ProEverything the exceptional ... Maybe because of that, and knowing my eagerness to understand these wines, when we said goodbye, the greyhound stared at me and said, or at least I had that feeling, "goodbye, eternal apprentice, I hope you come back soon".

We went to Stuttgart, while looking at Scharzhofberger for the last time.

Mysteriously, it had not happened before, the GPS introduced us through virtually impassable dirt roads. Tired and happy, sitting in the backseat, I thought the GPS mess would be related to the greyhound. Maybe he wanted us not to leave, to always remember the visit, not to forget him, to increase this text from 4 to 5000/6000 words ... It is very strange, but it is evident, that in Egon Müller even the greyhound is extraordinary.

Then, on the highway, while it was getting dark, looking at the landscape, calm and relaxed, in silence, I noticed how my neurons perfectly matched each other, and for the first time I had the feeling of having understood and enjoyed Egon Müller as never before, wines, his vineyard, and his family. A cliq, cliq, cliq, cliq ... simple but very nice neuronal.

I sincerely hope that whoever reads this feels great envy.

Logical and not at all worrying. So that you suffer a little less we offer you some bottles of Egon Müller, from its basic wine to the Eiswein, from € 38 to € 2450 bottle. Stocks are very limited, although we have several vintages. Decide your budget (the euros you are willing to spend), call me personally, talk a little about Egon Müller, and the wines that I think are right for you. Explain your wishes and I will try to make them come true. Do not worry, if I have any questions I will consult with the extraordinary greyhound.

El Berro, Sierra Espuña, Murcia (Spain) summer 2008

Blas Cerón