2020 Müller Catoir Bürgergarten Riesling

Organic. This terrific Riesling comes from the renowned Bürgergarten vineyard on the lower slopes of the Haardt Mountains. It’s a site rated as Grosses Gewächs (or Grand Cru) and was first planted over 700 years ago, making it one of the oldest vineyards in the Pfalz. When a vineyard survives this long, it usually tells you something. While Müller-Catoir does make a GG from a small parcel in this sloping vineyard (the Im Breumel), the lion’s share—culled from the Gehren and Aspen micro-terroirs—makes its way into this Erste Lage (or classified first growth) offering. The topsoil of Bürgergarten is sandy and deep, with yellow sandstone bedrock below. It’s a soil that brings power, perfume and intense mineral freshness. In terms of winemaking, the wine was naturally fermented and raised in a mixture of steel tanks and five-year-old 600-litre Halbstück ovals (25%) for 10 months. Franzen finds this combination—allied with extended lees aging—results in more expressive, less reductive wines that are more approachable on release.