Miquel “Domaine de Barroubio” 2005 Muscat de St-Jean de Minervois (Languedoc) – White minerality and flowers with big acidity. So incredibly vibrant. Among the best that I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting from this appellation. (5/10)

Miquel “Domaine de Barroubio” 2004 Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois (Languedoc) – From 375 ml. Every time I have a good muscat from either this or the Beaumes-de-Venise appellations, I wonder why I don’t drink more of them. Ennui, probably; there’s a wide world of sweet options out there. But when, for example, a St-Jean is on, there’s just something so sweetly pretty about it, and yet there’s that rocky background that makes it something more than Yet Another Sweet Muscat. This particular bottle is in-your-face, but it’s polite about it, and is a complete blast to drink. (12/09)

Miquel “Domaine de Barroubio” 2004 Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois (Languedoc) – There are zillions of sweet muscats that taste more or less the same, and the intersection of those descriptions (freshly-crushed flowers, exotic perfumes, fresh oranges, highly approachable sweetness) is less interesting than the rest. Here, it’s a transparent, quartzy minerality and a good deal of lightly-herbed sea salt; both are decidedly background material to the usual muscattishness, but they’re there, and they make all the difference. As for this particular bottling, it’s starting to bronze a bit – both color and flavor – which tames its exuberance but replaces it with a certain maturity of character. Very nice. (4/09)