Gelber Muskateller – 2025

Yellow Muscat from the Wonnegau, dry and aromatic

The 2025 Yellow Muscat from the Karl May winery is a dry organic white wine from Osthofen in Rheinhessen. It is aromatic with notes of nutmeg, white blossoms, and vineyard peach, while remaining lean on the palate. Not a sweet, perfumed wine, but a dry one with fragrance.

2025 Yellow Muscat is a dry organic white wine from the Karl May winery in Osthofen, pressed from a grape variety that simply cannot hide its fragrance. 6.9 grams of acidity give it noticeable drive in this vintage, while 5.2 grams of residual sugar keep it rounded. A wine for the early evening, when it is still bright out and no one wants anything heavy in their glass.

Nutmeg, white blossoms, vineyard peach

Even before the glass reaches your lips, the Yellow Muscat exudes scents of nutmeg, elderflower, and the pale flesh of a vineyard peach.

On the palate, the lush fragrance turns into something sleek. The 6.9 grams of acidity pull the wine long and straight; lemon zest and green almond accompany it, with nutmeg lingering as a spicy finish. At 12.5 percent alcohol, it feels light. This is one of the few grape varieties that actually tastes like grapes, and this vintage showcases its tart side.

Aromatic, spicy, and citrusy-fresh – that is how the 2025 presents itself in the glass. It earns its "dry" designation thanks to the acidity, which, at 6.9 grams, is significantly higher than the residual sugar, placing it firmly on the dry side both mathematically and sensorially.

What the Muscat pairs well with

Yellow Muscat likes everything that is bright and crisp, such as leafy salads with herbs, fresh goat cheese, steamed fish, and young oven-roasted vegetables.

Because it is vinified dry, it handles situations where sweet-smelling wines fail – with lemon, vinegar-based dressings, or Asian spice. The aroma holds its own against ginger and cilantro, while the acidity cleanses the palate. Chilled to eight to ten degrees Celsius, it remains clear; if served too cold, it closes up.

With a bowl of olives on the balcony, it needs no meal at all. The Muscat is the wine you open when guests arrive unannounced and you need something ready quickly.

Standing alongside it is the Pinot Blanc from the same vintage, for when the meal is more understated and you don't want the wine to take center stage. You can find more German white wines in our selection.

Limestone beneath the vines in the Wonnegau

The Liebenauer Hof has been in the same family since 1815, now in its seventh generation. Since 2007, Peter and Fritz May have been managing the 35 hectares in Osthofen according to organic guidelines.

"Our wines are better because of organic vineyard management," say Peter and Fritz regarding their work. The estate is located in the Wonnegau, the southern tip of Rheinhessen, where clay marl is interspersed with limestone. The marl retains moisture, the limestone maintains acidity, and for this Muscat, that is the reason why the fragrance never tips into the perfumed, but instead retains a sharp edge.

Herbicides and synthetic agents have been forbidden here for nearly twenty years. In the cellar, the Muscat remains in stainless steel, fermented cool and without wood, so that the bouquet is not masked. Everything else the family produces can be found in the Karl May winery collection. A wine that smells of grapes yet remains dry – a feat that only a grape variety like this can pull off.

Yellow Muscat – a wine and its vitals

• Origin: Wine from Germany
• Region: Rheinhessen
• Winery: Karl May - Peter and Fritz
• Vintage: 2025
• Grape variety: Yellow Muscat
• German Quality Wine (Qualitätswein)
• Screw cap
• 12.5% ABV
• 6.9 g/l acidity
• 5.2 g/l residual sugar

Organic inspection body DE-ÖKO-039 – German Agriculture