Tasting 2017 and 2018 vintages of Müller-Catoir Haardter Riesling side-by-side brought up interesting results because we ended up on different sides of this wineswinging adventure. What do we mean by that? Keep reading to find out.
Müller-Catoir Story
Müller-Catoir Winery was founded in 1744 by Johann Wilhelm Catoir and is run by the ninth generation of winemakers today.
Nestled on the edge of the Palatinate forest and seen from afar, the Haardt Castle (built in the 18th century) overlooks Haardt, one of the nine wine villages of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the Pfaltz winemaking region of Germany.
Since its foundation three hundred years ago, many steps of winemaking have been done the same way. The wines are created in the Müller-Catoir style: highly refined, with notes of minerality, elegant, and uncompromisingly unique.
The numerous tasks associated with the rhythm of the seasons are carefully done in the vineyards by hand. 100% of Estate hand-harvested grapes go through slow fermentation and careful maturing in the cellar.
Müller-Catoir Haardter Riesling Trocken
In the Bottle
First, let’s talk about what unites both wines – place, source of grapes, and dry style (Trocken).
Müller-Catoir’s Haardt Riesling is the ‘village’ level of the German VDP classification. What’s the significance of it? Because it’s an indicator of higher quality wine. As in Burgundy, the village wines typically incorporate fruit from single to several vineyards in a small geographic area around the commune, like Haardt village in the case of these two Rieslings.
Müller-Catoir’s version includes young vine material from the legendary Bürgergarten vineyard and from the classified sites of Herzog, Mandelring, and Herrenletten.
The fruit is slowly crushed, allowing for some skin contact, and fermented in stainless steel tanks, resulting in a wine of refreshing acidity, great depth, and, at times, almost salty mineral character.
What separates these two wines is the vintage. So how did they fare?
Face-off: 2017 vs. 2018 Müller-Catoir Haardter Riesling
On the way to our glasses, both wines followed a similar path just one year apart; the difference was quite sensible in aroma and taste.
In the glass, the color was similar – pale straw with a slight greenish hue. Although, 2017 was barely noticeably darker.
We were surprised by the difference in aromatics. The 2017 Müller-Catoir had delicate and sophisticated aromas of yellow blossoms, peach, orange peel, ripe apple, and grapefruit, with minerality and a distant hint of petroleum taking a back seat.
On the other hand, the 2018 Müller-Catoir was screaming with a chalky minerality and sweet petroleum notes, while a warm apple pie aroma was coming behind. It took some time for this Riesling to open up and show its fruity nature.
Unanimously, we gave the round on aromatics to the 2017 vintage.
The contrast between the two wines was apparent on the palate as well. The racy and almost bone-dry 2017 vintage had the flavors of fleshy lemon, Granny Smith apple, gooseberry, and green passion fruit. The minerality was way more pronounced than on the nose.
Pointing to a warmer vintage, 2018 Riesling had a fuller body and texture and tropical fruit inclination with flavors of dried mango, apricot, baked apple, and ripe Myer lemon.
Aftertaste and Winner
The aftertaste of 2017 Müller-Catoir Haardter Riesling made us think of crumble apple pie sprinkled with fresh lemon juice. The 2018 vintage had a tropical finish with a mango accent.
We had a split decision on the palate and aftertaste.
Once again, this side-by-side tasting proves that wineswinging is the best way to explore wines. If you’re not Jancis Robinson, Robert Parker, Hugh Johnson, or Rajat Parr – some of the top wine palates of the world – you hardly have an enormous wine library you ever tasted stored in your brain.
For ordinary people, it might be challenging to recognize the difference between similar wines of different vintages unless you try them simultaneously. It takes lots of practice.
We do what we preach and wineswing with 2-3 wines side-by-side. We organize tasting events with our wine club members to give them a chance to taste four to seven wines at a time and develop their palates.