Scents of peach, lemon, and a sharp note of radish in the nose of Muller-Catoir’s 2009 Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten Riesling Spatlese trocken set the tone for a cooling, lemony bright palate performance, with its infectiously juicy finishing fruit subtly but persistently suffused with chalk and marjoram. I would not have guessed this wine’s 13% alcohol given the sense of levity it conveys, but then, that is not so unusual at this address. Look for a good half dozen years of admirable performance from this extremely polished and refreshing Riesling. “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