{"id":6502,"date":"2022-07-06T14:58:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T06:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/?p=6502"},"modified":"2022-07-14T14:45:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T06:45:37","slug":"vertical-mure-alsace-sylvaner-cuvee-oscar-1998-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/zh\/p\/6502.html","title":{"rendered":"(English) Vertical: Mure Alsace Sylvaner Cuvee Oscar 1975-2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\u8fd9\u7bc7\u6587\u7ae0\u6ca1\u6709\u4e2d\u6587\u7248\uff0c\u5176\u4ed6\u8bed\u8a00\u7248\u672c\u8bf7\u89c1English<\/a>\u3002 For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.<\/p>

Mur\u00e9\u2019s magnificent Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar is an historically important wine for the venerable Alsace house of Mur\u00e9, as it\u2019s a wine the family used to drink, and still drinks, all the time, as it\u2019s \u00a0a real family favourite. It\u2019s easy to understand why: to put it simply, it\u2019s not just plain and simple delicious, but also one of the world\u2019s great white wines. However, the importance of Mur\u00e9\u2019s Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar goes far beyond just good taste and a sense of history. If nothing else, it showcases just how great the wines of less famous, less fashionable grape varieties can offer, when the product of old vines and great terroirs. I for one firmly believe that rather than fill the world with so much non-descript Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and even Riesling wines of little or no interest, made often from very young vines and sites that are, more often than not, of questionable suitability for the varieties themselves, wine lovers everywhere would benefit greatly from giving wines made from very old vines of less famous varieties a try. Mur\u00e9\u2019s Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar is just such one wine, utterly irresistible in its mouthcoating, multilayered delivery of rich deep aromas and (admittedly rather sweet) flavours. It showcases extremely well just how great old vine Alsatian Sylvaner wines are (or can be); in fact, wines that are so much better than many Alsace Riesling and Pinot Gris wines even from grand cru<\/em> sites that are diluted, flavourless and just frankly embarrassingly bad. To be clear, wines that should never be allowed to go into bottle sporting a grand cru<\/em>\u2019s name on the label. And so it is that it is much better to drink a wine such as this Sylvaner, made from old vines grown in an excellent \u00a0grand cru<\/em> site such as the Vorbourg. But very sadly, Alsatian estates are not allowed to state this fact on the label, given that Sylvaner is not one of the grapes included in the list of Alsace varieties from which grand cru<\/em> wines can be made save for the Zoztenberg. For the good of Alsace and of everybody who loves wine, that is something that is just going to have to change, sooner or later.<\/p>\n

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Mur\u00e9, the estate<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The wine history of the Mur\u00e9 firm is along one, beginning in 1650 when Michel Mur\u00e9<\/strong>\u00a0established himself as a wine grower in the Alsace village of Westhalten. However, the family winery really enters its modern age in 1935, when Alfred Mur\u00e9 bought the Clos Saint Landelin, the iconic monopole<\/em> walled-vineyard in the Vorbourg grand cru <\/em>near the town of Rouffach. In fact, Mur\u00e9 is so associated with this legendary site that its name is often incorporated into the family firm\u2019s\u00a0 name, as in \u201cMur\u00e9- Clos Saint Landelin\u201d. And so, perhaps not unreasonably wanting to get closer to the most important source of their grapes, in 1966 Oscar and Armand Mur\u00e9 decided to move the winery from Westhalten to Rouffach. And last but certainly not least, Ren\u00e9 Mur\u00e9 took over the estate in 1976, and really helped lift it into the quality stratosphere the winery finds itself today. It is around that time that I began falling in love with the Mur\u00e9 wines and I remember trying not to gush too hard or hoping my knees wouldn\u2019t go weak the first time I met the man. That can happen, when you meet one of your childhood heroes, though of course Ren\u00e9 had, and still has, no idea it was just so. But if when I moved my first tentative steps in the world of professional wine I so fell in love with the wines of Alsace (that still today are amongst the wines that I love the most and know the best), a lot of that merit must go to Ren\u00e9 Mur\u00e9, because his were some of the first truly great white wines I ever drank in my life. Wines so good that even someone just then beginning to take steps in the world of professional wine writing could understand their grandeur<\/em>. For example, his 1983 Tokay-Pinot Gris Clos Saint Landelin (so the variety was called back then) S\u00e9lection de Grains Nobles (SGN), tasted for the first time in Toronto at the Le Select bistro (back in the late 1980s when it was still on Queen Street West) remains one of the benchmark late harvest wines of my lifetime. Today, it\u2019s the turn of the latest generation of Mur\u00e9 family members, siblings V\u00e9ronique and Thomas Mur\u00e9, to propel their family winery to even greater heights. They do so not just by continuing the splendid work of their ancestors with the likes of Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sylvaner and Gewurztraminer (without the umlaut<\/em> on the \u201cu\u201d, because that\u2019s the way they spell the grape\u2019s name in Germany, but not in Alsace), but by adding their own skilled contributions, such as truly amazing sparkling and Pinot Noir wines, and some amazing work with Syrah as well. What can I tell you? Wine talent just seems to flow freely in the veins of the Mur\u00e9 family members. Niceness genes abound too, since you won\u2019t meet nicer people in wine anywhere, but perhaps that\u2019s besides the point.<\/p>\n

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And so it is that, at thirteen generations and counting, they really do know a little something about wine at Mur\u00e9: this is the address where some of Alsace\u2019s, France\u2019s even, best wines are made. By almost everybody\u2019s accounts, this is the winery that makes Alsace\u2019s best sparkling wines (Cr\u00e9mant d\u2019Alsace) and the region\u2019s best Pinot Noir wines (to be really clear on this subject, their Pinot Noir and the sparkling wines are right up there with very good bottles of Burgundy and of Champagne). The other typical grapes of Alsace are also used to make some stellar wines at Mur\u00e9, but there Mur\u00e9 has more competition: still, there\u2019s a lot to be said for the winery\u2019s Pinot Gris wines (in both dry and late harvest styles), that are especially spectacular and noteworthy (it is my belief that the absurd level of quality of their Pinot Gris wines owe a lot to the Vorbourg\u2019s specific soil and microclimate, a combination that seems to elevate this grape variety to some of Alsace\u2019s highest quality echelons). But the one wine gem not many wine lovers are aware Mur\u00e9 can really boast about is their Sylvaner wines: in fact, the estate makes not one but two simply spectacular wines with this grape variety. Do yourself a favour and run, don\u2019t walk, to grab as many bottles of the Mur\u00e9 Sylvaner Steinst\u00fcck and Oscar bottlings that you can find. You simply won\u2019t find too many better wines for the money.<\/p>\n

Sylvaner, the grape variety<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(For more information on this grape variety, please see: TerroirSense Wine Review. Verticals section, June 8, 2022: One of Italy\u2019s Best White Wines: K\u00f6fererhof Sylvaner \u2018R\u2019 Alto Adige Valle Isarco Vertical 2006-2016;<\/em> and March 30, 2021: Ernest Burn Alsace Sylvaner Vertical Tasting 1992-2017<\/em><\/a>.) <\/em><\/p>\n

Mur\u00e9\u2019s magnificent Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Named after Oscar Mur\u00e9, the grandfather of V\u00e9ronique and Thomas, the sibling duo currently running the show at the winery, the wine was never bottled and sold as such during Oscar\u2019s lifetime (1915-1985). It was his son Ren\u00e9 who decided it merited to be bottled and sold as such; and if truth be told, Ren\u00e9 could not have made a better or smarter decision in his lifetime.<\/p>\n

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What has to rank as not just one of the great Sylvaner wines, but one of the world\u2019s great white wines, is made from grapes grown in two plots of vines (only 0.5 hectares!) growing in the Clos Saint Landelin, one of Alsace\u2019s most famous and best monopole <\/em>vineyards (it has been in the Mur\u00e9 family since 1935, when Alfred Mur\u00e9, the ninth generation of the family saw fit to buy it, and good for him). About twelve hectares large and very steep, the Clos Saint-Landelin is located on the southern portion of the grand cru Vorbourg at the exit of the valley and is characterized by an extremely complex soil (marl and limestone soil with stones over a bed of Middle Jurassic Bajocian calcareous sandstone and Oligocene calcareous conglomerate subsoil) that, coupled with the old age of some of the Sylvaner vines, allows for monumental Sylvaners to be made that ages extremely well. If one of the secrets to great wines is old vines (in my view, if not the single most important factor in determining wine greatness, then it\u2019s squarely at number two; and I\u2019m still not sure what number one might be) then Mur\u00e9\u2019s magnificent Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar wine is as well set as any wine there is. Just imagine that these southeast-facing Sylvaner vines were planted before World War II, and then replanted in 1973 (which means that even the replanted vines are about fifty years old!). The plot is located in the bottom quarter of the Clos, at about 250 meters above sea level; the roughly sixty centimeters of compact clays with limestone on Oligocene calcareous conglomerates rich in oolithic limestone pebbles is a type of soil that Sylvaner does particularly well on. Thomas tells me that you could also make a great red wine there too. By contrast, there are only 30 centimeters at the top of the Clos (where, not surprisingly, drought can be more of a problem). There is Riesling planted right next to the Sylvaner in the Clos, so that in itself is indicative of the high esteem the Sylvaner grape has always been held in at Mur\u00e9. The grapes from this specific small old section of the Clos are late-harvested: for example, they are picked two weeks later than those of the Steintstuck, a lieu-dit<\/em> from where Mur\u00e9 makes another exceptionally good Sylvaner wine. Last but not least, these Sylvaner vines are both organic- and biodynamic-certified, and are farmed as such (the estate has been farmed organically since 1999, and biodynamically since 2013).<\/p>\n

The vinification is simple, very light pressing (lighter than that used for the Riesling at 0.55 per kilogram of grapes); no sulfur dioxide is used before the end of fermentation, and the wine is both fermented and aged in stainless steel. Thomas finds that the warm climate of Rouffach and the grape ripeness level that is easily achieved in the area means that oak aging leads to Sylvaner wines that can age and evolve too quickly. Well, no such worries with the Cuvee Oscar, a grand cru Sylvaner wine in everything but name only. In Alsace, legislators should be frankly ashamed of themselves that so much crappy Riesling and Pinot Gris wines are allowed to be called \u201cgrand cru\u201d on their label when a truly grand cru<\/em> wine as such as this Sylvaner wine cannot.\u00a0 What a joke. Some people in Alsace need to do their job better. Perhaps it\u2019s high time something is done about it.<\/p>\n

The wines in this vertical tasting report<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mur\u00e9 2019 Alsace Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar Clos Saint Landelin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 95<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luminous golden yellow. Aromas and flavours of apple, pear, peach and lemon verbena are complicated by a honeyed nuance. Then yellow fruit cocktail and custard cream echoes linger nicely on the suave sweetly spicy finish. Not exactly a dry wine (45 g.\/L r.s will; make it anything but classically dry!) but boasts magical balance so this tastes less sweet than 45 grams per liter of residual sugar imply. The rich but nicely focused aftertaste is extremely complex and will have you reaching for your glass over and over again. Try this sultry beauty of a wine with grilled sausages, oven-roasted veal loin, chicken fowl and grilled pork dishes with tropical fruit chutneys and or mushrooms. Will also go wonderfully with ethnic cuisines, such as those of Morocco or Thailand. Drinking window: now-2038.<\/p>\n

Mur\u00e9 2018 Alsace Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar Clos Saint Landelin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 94<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Luminous straw-green. Captivating aromas of lemon ice, baked pear, cinnamon, jasmine and buttercups. Then rich dense and suave but with a brighter mouthfeel than some other vintages of this wine and less residual sugar too. A gorgeous wine that still hovers on the off-dry to sweet side, very much in a late harvest style: it\u2019s also a grand cru<\/em> wine, in everything but name only. That much said the acidity is such that this beauty boasts impeccable balance. Try it with roast chicken and mushrooms, shrimp with an orange-tropical fruit chutney or emulsion and pumpkin soup spiced up with cilantro leaves. Drinking window: 2022-2042.<\/p>\n

Mur\u00e9 2017 Alsace Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar Clos Saint Landelin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 88<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good full bright yellow. Yellow peach, herbs, scorched earth, caramel and sweet spices on the very ripe nose. Tactile in the mouth with ripe flavours similar to the aromas but not especially expressive. More structured than flavourful or perfumed, with a somewhat monotonal mouthfeel and element of finishing austerity. The slightly hot year shows through. Drinking window: now-2026.<\/p>\n

Mur\u00e9 2016 Alsace Sylvaner Cuv\u00e9e Oscar Clos Saint Landelin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 90<\/strong><\/p>\n