Harvested December 21 in the Gehren parcel, the 2004 Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Eiswein displays caramelized pit fruits, honey, flowers, and fascinating, Jurancon-like musky, meaty notes in the nose. Ravishingly viscous, polished and creamy yet insistently fresh and invigorating on the palate, it offers caramelized and tart visages of apricot and pineapple, musk, sea salt, and drippingly sweet florality. Whether this will acquire something approaching the complexity or uncanny balance of this year’s two Muller-Catoir Riesling Auslesen remains to be seen, but in any more normal context its exceptional quality would shine more brightly. 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
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