Muller-Catoir’s 2011 Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese trocken signals notes of cress and lime peel in the nose that eventually translate into incisive finishing invigoration. The papaya noted in this collection’s generic Riesling and the parsnip featured in the corresponding Haardt “village” wine are here united without engendering any awkward sense of bifurcation. There are clarity and penetration of primary juiciness in the sustained finish just as in the lighter-weight aforementioned “village”- level bottling. Smoky black tea, alkalinity, pungent green herbs and crushed stone lend additional complexity, if at the price of levity. I suspect this will drink well through at least 2018. Incidentally, fermentation for this bottling was in part spontaneous and stainless steel tanks were supplemented by bit of cask exposure.
With 2011, Martin Franzen celebrated his tenth harvest at Muller-Catoir. It’s worth pausing to recall that Franzen took over in an extremely difficult situation: as successor to the justly legendary (still active) Hans-Gunter Schwarz whose highly acrimonious rupture with owner Heinrich Catoir had recently ended an until then lifelong friendship; in the immediate wake of an interim team that did not survive long enough to see-through even a single vintage from vine-pruning to market; and compelled to divide his time and attention in vintage 2002 with the winery in Baden to which he was at the time still contractually committed. Improbably, Franzen quickly brought quality back to that level which had for three decades made Muller-Catoir a Pfalz beacon, and his wines have reflected both continuity and subtle innovation, displaying refinement and clarity of expression equaled by few of their region. (To be sure, you’ll read other very different accounts of Franzen’s tenure – which is one reason I am reiterating mine.) The complexity and balance of residually sweet wines rendered at this estate remain unsurpassed anywhere, though there are fewer than ever of these, to the point where a couple of otherwise extremely knowledgeable colleagues of mine have written about Muller-Catoir as though their entire production were trocken. And indeed, vintage 2010 set a new (for me depressing) record given that the (as usual very long) Muller-Catoir line-up contained only three wines that weren’t either trocken or nobly sweet. (Of the three, I tasted only one, as Franzen could not come up with even a single bottle of Scheurebe Spatlese, or Mussbacher Riesling Kabinett, the latter absent even from the estate’s price list and – sigh – probably not purchased by any German national, or least-wise no “self-respecting” one). And as my reviews suggest, there has seldom if ever been a vintage in which it was more strikingly evident than in 2010 that – notwithstanding a history of rendering exemplary dry wines – the greatest excitement at this estate remains that generated by wines with residual sweetness. (Pradikat, incidentally, continues to be indicated – albeit in miniscule print – on the labels of nearly all dry Muller-Catoir wines, so I continue to include it in my descriptions, although in keeping with new VDP policies, the estate will very shortly need to follow-through on their repeatedly voiced intention to do away with those indications for other than residually sweet wines.) This was among those estate’s worst-hit by May frost so that the 2011 crop here was tiny, which when combined with the circumstances of harvest led to a seriously abbreviated line-up of bottlings, including dry Rieslings of singular if slightly austere nature. “The moment chosen for picking was absolutely critical, and you didn’t have a lot of room to play on either side of optimum” says Franzen – voicing an opinion of 2011 that you are likely to hear among German Riesling vintners only in the Pfalz and then from my no means all of them. “And,” he adds, “there wasn’t much potential for nobly sweet wine, precisely because things went so quickl
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