Müller-Catoir Bürgergarten Erste Lage Riesling 2021

Organic. This tremendous 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 (Im Breumel), the lion’s share—taken from the Gehren and Aspen micro-terroirs—makes its way into this Erste Lage (or 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. The wine fermented naturally and was 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.

It’s a stimulating old-vine Bürgergarten from a cool vintage, redolent of orange citrus, summer blossoms and citrus skin. A lick of leesy savouriness adds complexity while invigorating tension carries the silky, crystalline palate to a beautiful, grapefruit-drenched finish. Despite a cooler year, this radiates with the generosity of the terroir cut through with striking clarity; a GG, and a great one, in all but name.