Muller-Catoir

At a time when minimal intervention and the concept of terroir were still alien to the German wine lands, Hans-Günther Schwarz knew the score: you have to have an innate understanding of soil and site before you can make great wine. His legacy of low-intervention viticulture and winemaking has gone on to inspire and educate a whole generation of young German winemakers, in the now-accepted theory that great wine is made in the vineyard, not the cellar.

That may sound hackneyed to today’s well-versed wine lover, however, it was not that long ago that the Pfalz region was awash with lifeless vineyards producing masses of overcropped dull fruit. During these dark decades, Günther Schwarz maintained standards at Müller-Catoir that were almost unique across Germany, let alone the Pfalz. Today, these same high standards are held under Philipp David Catoir and talented young cellarmaster Martin Franzen.

The wine growing has remained much the same as has the winemaking, although things continue to evolve, as with any great Estate. Today Müller-Catoir continues to make wines that inspire a kind of zealous devotion amongst Riesling lovers across the globe. The 20 ha Müller-Catoir Estate is in and around the village of Haardt at the southern end of the Mittelhaardt, in the hills outside of Neustadt. Here, in the foothills of the Haardt Mountains, there is a myriad of soil types, clay intermixed with limestone, sandstones, flint and basalt.

These are some of the warmest and driest vineyards in Germany, kindly sheltered by the Haardt mountain range (in fact the continuation of the Vosges mountains that define Alsace to the south). What has made these wines comparable to the very best Rieslings in the world? Firstly, the Estate has maintained the legacy of Günther Schwarz. He was a purist, a stickler for organics, with very low yields and minimal interventionism before these things became popular.

Each harvest is limited through restrictive vine pruning in the winter, supplemented by cluster thinning in the summer. Soil is given meticulous care (mostly permanent green cover) and there is selective hand-picking of very small grape quantities by hand. After racking, the wines are not touched again, save for a smidgeon of SO2, until they are bottled. The use of only perfect and perfectly ripe fruit and the non-intervention in the cellar results in wines of high extract figures, ripe acidity and powerful vineyard character.