Muller-Catoir Breumel in den Mauern Riesling Grosses Gewachs, Pfalz, Germany

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The Muller-Catoir 2009 Haardter Burgergarten Breumel In den Mauern Riesling Grosses Gewachs – bottled in August, whereas the rest of the estate’s 2009 vintage Rieslings had been bottled by May – incorporates around 30% wine vinified and matured in 1,000 liter cask. It harbors only marginally more alcohol than its 13% single-vineyard Riesling siblings, but exhibits an enhanced sense of fullness. Lemon oil pungency; a seemingly dense compaction of peat, chalk, and mineral salts; and ripe pit fruits collaborate for a formidable Riesling if one less ingratiating and more rustic than are several of its ostensibly lesser siblings. There is gripping, tactile, peppery, mineral impingement to the finish that reminds me of Austrian Urgestein Rieslings. Franzen, incidentally, predicted that this – and a couple of its fellow 2009 trocken Rieslings – would have “turned inside out” by early 2011 and be displaying its fruit side prominently. Well, I did have chance to re-taste this in January and it did indeed exhibit more pit fruit lusciousness while having shed none of its mineral intensity. “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 Catoir 2008 Haardter Burgergarten Breumel In den Mauern Riesling Grosses Gewachs – from Muller-Catoir’s monopole clos within the Burgergarten – was picked at the end of harvest. It weighs in at 13.5% alcohol, but – like its 2007 counterpart – displays lift and elegance with the best of the vintage. A distinctly peppery pungency and saline minerality mingle on the palate with yellow plum and herbal distillates as this charts a graceful course, finishing with sappy primary fruit juiciness and a wealth of (for want of a better word) mineral complexity. This should be worth following for 12-15 years. You just had to be patient, said Martin Franzen about the 2008 harvest, but then once the grapes were ready, things went at a pretty good clip. We didn’t attempt to pick on into November. He volunteered a characterization of the wines as, incredibly playful and vibratory, which both amused and comforted me, seeing how often I had myself by then used those metaphors to describe some of the best of them. The recent evolution of this estate under Franzen’s direction – about which I have written extensively in issue 185 and elsewhere – continues on an exciting trajectory, and in retrospect I must say that with the possible exception of the two vintages of awkward transition immediately following the departure of long-time director Hans-Gunter Schwarz, at no point since I began tasting the wines of Muller-Catoir in the early ‘80s has this estate slipped from the apex of the Pfalz – indeed, of its nation’s – viticultural pecking order. Following current German fashion, Muller-Catoir now renders a Sauvignon Blanc, but I forgot to ask to taste its current installment, after having missed out on the inaugural rendition due to ignorance. With Pinot Blanc, though, Muller-Catoir is on solid ground, this grape’s virtues having even been enshrined in the Pfalz realization of Grosses Gewachs, and the estate’s history of success with it being long and illustrious.Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

The 2007 Haardter Burgergarten Breumel In den Mauern Riesling Grosses Gewachs comes from the most sheltered (as its name says “within the walls”) portion – a Muller-Catoir monopole – of the Burgergarten. Bitter-sweet floral inhalations suggesting gentian and iris, and – even on the nose – suggestions of iodine and wet stone, lead to a silken-textured palate loaded with kumquat, blood orange and underlain by a mysteriously animal savor such as I would be less surprised to come upon in a red Burgundy. With alcohol over 13.5% and hence slightly higher than its Riesling stable mates or the vintage norm, it comes off as supremely elegant, even buoyant, and does not betray a bit of heat or save for its hints of citrus zest and fruit pit of bitterness. What’s more, there is an active, vibratory interchange of fruit, animal, and (saline, stony) mineral elements here, and a finish that tugs relentlessly at your salivary glands. This beauty should perform brilliantly allowing, perhaps, for phases over the next 12-15 years. You had to play poker and take some chances this year, remarked Martin Franzen, and based on the vinous evidence, he repeatedly played winning hands. The stylistic evolution of wines under Franzen’s and proprietor Philip Catoir’s direction – which I honestly find it difficult to understand why so many commentators view as utterly discontinuous with the legacy of legendary former cellar master Hans-Gunter Schwarz – has run toward increasing refinement and subtlety in the Rieslings, for which conditions in 2007 – assuming (as one can, here) impeccable viticultural husbandry and patience at harvest – were ultimately ideal (even as they had been problematic in 2006). Franzen has turned out the first totally masterful Scheurebe collection of his career this year. And the nobly sweet wines – including, improbably, six tour de force TBAs, among which are the estate’s first-ever from Muskateller and Weissburgunder and first Scheurebe TBA since 1964 – dazzle with the audacity and at times raucousness that routinely accrue to nobly sweet Pfalz 2007s, and are at their best unsurpassed. Nearly all of this year’s collection (save for one refusenik Rieslander TBA) had been bottled already in April, a bold strategy considering how downright unsettled by nature some of them are. But capturing all of their energy in bottle seemed to be the governing metaphor. I cannot resist pointing out that – in keeping with a lamentable national trend – there is now not just no halbtrocken wine here, but no middle ground: every wine this year is either legally trocken or obviously sweet. Muller-Catoir is increasing their acreage of Pinot Blanc – in itself a welcome development, although partisans of Rieslaner will be dismayed to learn that it is coming at that variety’s expense.Importer: Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300