Rating:
91
Stephan Reinhardt - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"Muster's dark-colored 2011 Graf Zweigelt from 30-year-old vines displays a spicy, intense and pure bouquet, with ripe and very concentrated dark fruit and white pepper aromas. Concentrated, firm, fresh and fruit-intense on the palate, this is a serious red wine with grip and structure, a coolish Austrian Zweigelt that comes along like a classic claret; it has freshness, pithy tannins and spicy minerals, as well as a salty, salivating finish. Just lovely." April 2016
Product Description:
About the Estate
Maria and Sepp Muster, based in Leutschach (Southern Styria), cultivate ten hectares of – since 2003 – demeter-certified vineyards. These were mentioned already in 1787, although the history of the family estate dates back to the first third of the 18th century. The Musters work very traditional in the vineyards and the cellar (with almost no additives and just very low additions of sulfur), and produce some of Austria's finest, most characterful and fascinating wines (mostly white, but also an excellent Zweigelt); these wines ask for all your passion, time and patience. Several of the wines I have tasted in the cellar – Sauvignons, Morillons, blends or Zweigelt – had been open for days (six to eleven), and there was absolutely nothing missing in these wines, which in contrast benefit a lot from aeration. They ferment slowly and the aging on the lees can take up to three years, because it is always the wine itself that is prominent - not the clients that tend to ask for the newest vintage only. Muster wines are great reflections of origin, winemaking (you can't do anything during harvest and bottling) and vintage. Far beyond the mainstream, their unfined and authentic wines offer new drinking experiences, and even their "orange wines" (Erde and Gräfin) do not give any hints that could irritate you, but instead make you open your mind. The Muster couple presents its wines at relevant, international, "natural wine" wine fairs such as RAW (Berlin et al.), The Real Wine Fair (London) and La Dive Bouteille (Saumur), and at each show, their wines belong to the very best. - Stephen Reinhardt, Wine Advocate, Issue # 224