2017 Haardt Riesling Pfalz Øko Weingut Müller-Catoir

From younger vines and partly from sandier soils than the regular, yellow-colored Buntsandstein, the 2017 Riesling Haardt is deep, fine and ripe on the elegant and balanced nose. Full-bodied, lush and intense on the palate, this is a deep, dry, well- balanced and textured Riesling with a ripe but salty-mineral acidity and a long, well-structured and slightly salty finish with nice bitters and citrus flavors. This is an excellent vin de terroir that slowly opens up. It's an impressive wine in the lower/medium price range. Tasted in December 2019.

Here is an adamantly dry bottling that captures the efficacious bright acidity and salinity that are also features of this year's off-dry generic Müller-Catoir bottling. The wine's sunny disposition and salinity are signaled on the lemon-lime, grapefruit and sea-breeze-inflected nose, and persist on a firm, palpably extract-rich palate. The bell-clear, zesty, refreshingly persistent finish introduces an invigorating crunch of mustard seed and smoky-stony accents while practically bursting with energy and sheer juiciness. "This is really right on the money [wirklich auf den Punkt]," suggested Franzen, who is not a guy for boasting. I wholeheartedly concur!