Patrick Meyer is the winemaker at the family owned Julien Meyer domaine in Northerly Alsace (Nothalten to be precise). He's been in the saddle for a while - since 1982 in fact. The domaine has been farmed biodynamically (Demeter certified) since 1985, and Patrick spurns all additives including sulphur. More on that subject later!

Almost every week, Simon selects an orange wine (a white wine made with extended skin contact) that grabbed his attention. View the whole series here.

Julien Meyer - Petit Muscat de Maceration 2015

Aromatic grape varieties often seem to work well with skin contact. There are plenty of examples of “orange” Gewurztraminer that prove this point, but until I happened across this bottle I hadn’t seen the approach tried with Muscat.

Patrick Meyer is the winemaker at the family owned Domaine Julien Meyer in Northerly Alsace (Nothalten to be precise). He’s been in the saddle for a while – since 1982 in fact. The domaine has been farmed biodynamically (Demeter certified) since 1985, and Patrick spurns all additives including sulphur. More on that subject later!

I don’t have any tech notes about this wine, but given its spicy, tannic structure I’m guessing there was quite a bit of skin contact – maybe a month or so? The deep russet gold colour suggests that too. By the way, previous vintages of this wine were not made with skin contact, and simply state “Petit Fleur – Muscat” on the label.

Petit Fleur – Muscat de Maceration 2015 has perfumed grapey aromas on the nose, just as you’d expect from Muscat, but the palate is more spiced and savoury. The fruit is quite angular, and the finish is absolutely bone dry, however Muscat’s exuberant aromatics stop it becoming too austere.

I’d drink this happily with charcuterie, or piquant Asian dishes. It feels very versatile.

Julian Meyer - Petit Fleur 2015Unfortunately, I found that after the botttle had been open for 24 hours (stored in the fridge), it was starting to develop a bit of the dreaded mousiness on the finish. This is frustrating, and makes me wish Meyer had added a modest 10mg/Litre of SO2 at bottling. Still, as long as you’re willing to finish the bottle at one sitting, buy with confidence. This is bargain priced for the style, region and farming methods.

Buy from Vleck in Amsterdam for €16.90 / Not currently available in the UK / €13 in France.