2004 Müller-Catoir Haardter Herzog Rieslaner Auslese

The 2004 Haardter Herzog Rieslaner Auslese smells to me more typical of Rieslaner, with candied pineapple, brandied peach, resin, banana, honey and brown spices. On the palate, this also displays the blazing brightness of acidity for which the variety is notorious, setting up an enervating tension of flavors in a thick, creamy matrix, like electric charges of citrus passing through a field of jellied tropical fruits. The finish displays extraordinary concentration of spiced, honeyed tropical and pit fruits, quickening citricity, and a mysterious, carnal depth. Fifteen to 20 years of interesting evolution is a good bet for this one. Along with this sample of Auslese, three more half bottles left me thinking “What next?!” 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