B Vintners, Stellenbosch (South Africa) Muscat 2017

 Dry Muscat can be one of the world’s most exciting white wines, yet it is fast becoming a unicorn, as it is terribly difficult to make, and is dwindling to almost nothing even in the few places where it has traditionally been made successfully (namely, Alsace and South Styria in Austria).  The difficulty with this type of wine is that the floral aromas usually trick the mind into thinking that a sweet wine is on the way, but dry flavors then seem discordant on the palate, producing a sensory phenomenon that expert tasters refer to as “disagreement” between aromas and flavors.  That’s partly a subjective reaction, but partly an objective flaw, as certain wines routinely produce the reaction in an unacceptably large percentage of tasters.  And where I come from, an aspect of a wine that makes lots and lots of people not like it is…a flaw.  Well, this wine is one of few that manages to show really expressive floral aromas that lead into dry, mineral-tinged flavors and a long, totally agreeable finish.  Don’t read what follows with kids in the room, but my raw note from the tasting in which I encountered the wine reads, “Fucking awesome, and as good as any like this that I’ve ever tasted except from the best Grand Cru renditions from Alsace.”  I stand by that.  Just so you’ll know, B Vintners is actually fully named, “B Vintners Vine Exploration Co.”, and is a venture by the team of cousins Gavin Bruwer and Bruwer Raats (the latter being the leading force in Raats Family Wines).  I have exactly no idea why Bruwer is a first name for one and a family name for the other, but both are great guys and they make very, very good wine.