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