Müller-Catoir Herzog Rieslaner Trockenbeerenauslese 285° 2017 (375ml)

Rieslaner is a cross between Sylvaner and Riesling, developed in 1921. Despite being a lesser-known grape, it plays an important role in the history of this domaine. It was Hans-Günter Schwarz (the legendary cellar master who made the wines here from 1962 to 2002) who brought Rieslaner to Müller-Catoir and planted it in the Haardt’s Herzog vineyard. Schwarz made some fabled sweet wines from Herzog Rieslaner (which are nigh-on impossible to find), and since 2003, Franzen has enthusiastically taken up the torch. 

Rieslaner’s inclination to botrytis (even in dry years) while retaining high acidity makes it Müller-Catoir’s most reliable sweet wine variety. Seeing the success of the Rieslaner in Herzog, Müller-Catoir used mass-selection cuttings to plant in the Gimmeldinger Schlössel, a vineyard on poor sandstone lying at the foot of the Haardt Mountains. The results have been equally spectacular. The back-vintage wines have been re-issued from the domaine this year and will surely live up to their legendary billing.

Organic. This is a special ‘Degree Oechsle’ bottling crafted from a selection of extremely dried-out grapes. Müller-Catoir recommends drinking this wine at a temperature of around 10  to 12°C from a large red wine glass, to tease out the wine’s extraordinary aromatic complexity.

Alcohol 6%; acidity 12.3 g/L; residual sugar 443.6 g/L.