Ottenbreit – Long Live Müller-Thurgau 2022
Franken, Germany
This Müller-Thurgau made by Christian Ottenbreit comes from a vineyard that was planted in 1960 and has a pale straw yellow color with light greenish sheen.
On the nose, peach, apricot and meadow flowers combined with notes of white pepper and citrus fruit with a touch of sweet spices as the wine evolves in the glass.
On the palate, it’s genuinely fresh and arrives with a refined flavor, faint muscat, a little bit of butterscotch and medium acidity.
All delightful characteristics breathing refinement and elegance.
It closes with a persistent finish on the fruit, all the way.
For two weeks the grapes are left to ferment with their skins, extracting color and flavor, bringing a deeper and more complex profile.
Then, the wine is aged for ten months in 500l oak barrels, adding structure, smoothness and a touch of toast and warm spices.
Remarkably, Long Live Müller-Thurgau 2022 is the winner of the Müller-Thurgau Trophy 2023 organized by Falstaff International, a magazine and media platform dedicated to wine, food and travel. Falstaff is headquartered in Vienna and the magazine is published globally.
This white grape variety itself was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882 and is a crossing of Riesling and Madeleine Royale. After Riesling it is the second most planted grape in Germany and the most widely planted grape in Franken, wine region in northern Bavaria famous for its dry white wines.