2004 Müller-Catoir Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spätlese

From the Breumel parcel comes the 2004 Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese, a wine of purity, elegance and refinement significantly surpassing the wines that went before it. Aromas and flavors of yellow plum, quince, lemon, apricot, malt, sage and orange blossom are just a few of the highlights I met while trying to decide whether to spit. The rarified sense of lift and lightness and dance-like interplay of flavors along with honeyed richness, the hint of caramelized pit fruits and creaminess along with invigoratingly salty minerality all carry through to a finish of extraordinary class and length. Since the arrival of young Mosel-born Martin Franzen at this great estate so long associated with the wisdom and artistry of Hans-Gunter Schwarz’s 36-year tenure as cellar master, I have been struck by a degree of qualitative continuity and stylistic affinity with the ancient regime that other commentators seem not to have noticed. In a very real sense, the legacy of Schwarz – “activism in the vines, minimalism in the cellar” – has seeped indelibly into the fabric of nearly every top winery in the Pfalz. How then could it be otherwise precisely at Mandelring #25? And although Franzen and a largely new team were forced, to a considerable extent, to rediscover the keys to these vines and sites, they are the same vines and sites so carefully tended, trained and conscientiously replanted over the past decades by the then team of Catoir and Schwarz. In 2004, Franzen has unlocked from them astonishingly numerous and improbably fine vinous treasures such as one has come to associate with the name “Muller-Catoir” in the nearly four decades since a very young Heinrich Catoir inherited this estate and decided to make a statement. Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300