The 2004 Haardter Mandelring Scheurebe Spatlese smells of bergamot, cassis, and candied mint and comes onto the palate with so much sweetness and low-toned richness as to suggest mint chocolate. Pure and rich, with caramelized peach and candied herbal concentrate character, this tastes very sweet even coming after an Eiswein, and going back to it in a subsequent context only drove home the fact that it is pushing the acceptable limit in that department. The finish gushes forth an impressive font of candied fruits and herbal essences. While it seems soft by the standards of the vintage, it will take time for this much sweetness to back off. So I would suggest monitoring it again in 6 or 8 years. 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