Representing the vintage’s top material from its site, the Catoir 2009 Haardter Herrenletten Riesling Spatlese trocken – like its 2008 predecessor, exhibiting vivacity and buoyancy even at 13% alcohol – smells of tangerine rind, oregano, and white peach, with suggestions of peat, musk and sweat adding an intriguingly animal dimension. Glossy yet lusciously juicy, this misses quite the fascination or mineral intricacy of the corresponding Burgergarten, but nevertheless finishes with impressive and delightful persistence. Expect it to perform well for at least 5-7 years. “Despite sporadic rain at harvest time,” notes Martin Franzen about the 2009 harvest, “cool weather kept botrytis completely at bay. Frankly,” he adds, “it was hard to make disappointing wine with raw materials of this caliber.” But it was also impossible to achieve nobly sweet results save from Rieslaner, with its notorious penchant for spontaneous desiccation even in the absence of botrytis. This is the first vintage, incidentally, for which this estate has claimed organic bona fides, and Franzen – even if predictably – claims to find additional depth in his wines thanks to that conversion. (Not that this estate has ever been anything but entirely circumspect in any use of herbicides or pesticides.)Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

The 2004 Haardter Herrenletten Riesling Spatlese trocken smells of tart but ripe plum and lemon. In the mouth, its fruit and citrus flavors are clear, pure, and precise, with a suggestion of creaminess of texture that helps ameliorate a tendency to austerity exhibited by all of these young 2004 dry Muller-Catoir Rieslings thus far. Subtle wet stone and tactile minerality lend the finish an exceptional intensity and feel, but also austerity. You have to be a mineral freak to love this the way that I do. Franzen insists – and is not alone among canny vintners in so doing – that a certain amount of youthful austerity in his dry Rieslings must be ascribed precisely to the generous lees contact given them that will gradually play textural and fruit-conserving dividends. “Wines like this aren’t supposed to be radiant in their youth,” he asserts. 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