With a 2004 Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten Spatlese trocken we enter a realm of bitter-sweet, lightly desiccated fruit flavors. The nose is of persimmon. In the mouth, intense persimmon and citrus rind flavors are folded into a creamy, glossy, obviously lees-enriched, and subtly honeyed matrix. We’re up to over 7 grams of residual sugar now, which is just as well since – at 13.5% alcohol – the finish evinces slight but not irritating heat. With its underlying richness and plush texture, I suspect this will come around very nicely after a few more months in bottle. 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