• The Pfalz is one of the two largest wine regions of Germany, with 23.4 thousand hectares under production. It is sometimes called Palatinate in (British) English. Also called “Rheinpfalz” on old German wine labels. Pronounced “faahlts”.
  
• Riesling is the primary grape, but only 21% of production here is Riesling. This guide only deals with Riesling and, to a small degree, Scheurebe. With a few minor exceptions the best wines are made from one grape or the other.
  
• The region stretches 80 kilometers north-to-south and is up to 30 kilometers wide in places, but nearly all the best villages run along the slope of the north-south running Haardt mountains. An ancient road, the Deutsche Weinstrasse (the German Wine Road) connects them.
  
• I always think of the Pfalz as the German extension of Alsace immediately to the south. It:
  ---Lies in Rhine valley away from Rhine on the eastern slope of Haardt Mountains (called the Vosges Mountains in France)
  ---Has similar soils, landscape, villages and cuisine to Alsace but different style of dry Riesling. Alsatian style is more rounded, fuller.
  ---Just as Alsace is the sunniest region in France, it is the sunniest in Germany.
  ---If anywhere is the German home of dry Riesling, this is it.
  
• The prestigious historic core of the Pfalz is the Mittelhaardt, which runs for a mere ten kilometers along the Deutsche Weinstrasse between Neustadt in the south and Wachenheim to the north. Its wines are characterized by a succulent richness that traditionally was not masked by sweetness – particularly those from the villages of Deidesheim and Forst, the two best. Thus trocken or halbtrocken wines dominated, although many producers have shown that great auslesen, beerenauslesen and trockenbeerenauslesen can be made too. The historic giants of this area are the so-called “three B’s”: Reichsrat von Buhl, Bürklin-Wolf, and Bassermann-Jordan.
  
• The area north of the Mittelhaardt is called the “Unterhaardt” and south of here the “Oberhaardt” (because of elevation – the Rhine flows northward to the sea).
  
• Pfalz producers have recently produced an “official” vineyard classification. In January 2004, a club of generally the best producers called the VDP made a list of grand cru vineyards for the Pfalz region. Like the Pigott/Johnson classification, it is based on the famous 1828 tax classification plus contemporary tastings.
  
• Limitations/problems with the new VDP classification include:
  --- Only vineyards cultivated by VDP members can be included. The vineyards of Müller-Catoir, a top producer, are out for example.
  --- The actual appearance of the words “grosse gewächse” (grand cru) on the label is limited to dry wines. Otherwise, consumers have to know for themselves which vineyards have the designation.
  --- Unlike the Piggott/Johnson classification, there is no grand cru/premier cru distinction.
  
• Because of the foregoing three issues, I use the Piggott/Johnson classification in this guide. However, where a vineyard has been designated a grand cru site by the VDP but not by Piggott and Johnson I have included it, indicating with a “(+)”. I would be skeptical of the quality of these vineyards – they may have been included for political reasons.
  
• Because of limitations of sources, this guide has the same caveat as the Nahe guide. My source of vineyard classification is the Hugh Johnson Wine Atlas (5th ed.). However, only the Mittelhaardt is mapped in the Atlas in detail. It lists the other villages that have first class vineyard(s), but does not name the vineyards themselves. For those villages, I deduced what the best vineyards are by prices and other indicators. However, if you want to be more certain about First Class/Great First Class vineyards outside the Mittelhaardt, consult Stuart Piggott’s “Atlas der deutschen Weine” (1995) which apparently maps the entire Pflaz region and includes the first class vineyards in all villages.
  
• A note on Schuerebe: Müller-Catoir made the world realize how amazing this grape can be. Pfeffingen is the other constant producer of Scheurebe in the Pfalz. Von Buhl and Bürkling Wolf made Scheurebe in 1999 (Auslese and above). Darting usually makes some. Müller-Catoir also produces amazing Rieslaner, e.g a 99 point TBA in 2001.
  

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Hans-Gunter Schwarz was a magician. He did things with those sites that likely nobody else ever will again

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Hans-Gunter Schwarz was a magician. He did things with those sites that likely nobody else ever will again

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People shouldn't forget that a lot of his wines, e.g. the 2001s, have 30+ years of life in them. He'll be gone but not forgotten, at least for a long while...

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Weingut Darting, which used to concentrate mainly on wines with residual sweetness, now make nearly 70 percent of their wines dry. Kurt Darting, who learned his craft with Hans Günther Black [legendary winemaker at Müller-Catoir who retired in 2002], understands how to end up with good wine in the bottle. The diverse fronts across which he moves prevent this from occuring, however, on a completely regular basis. Brilliant wines stand beside average ones. High points of the 2002 vintage are, as always, his very clear and typical Rieslings with juicy freshness, which also succeed at the higher sweetness levels. The Schuerebe Spätlese inspired us – Darting is claiming the mantle from his former mentor as the new heir of Schuerebe, as this style no longer exists at Mueller Catoir. A wine like this allowed us to reconcile us with his various offerings of merely average quality.

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I'm saving a most of the 4 cases of 2001 Muller-Catoir Haardter Burgergarten (2134) spatlese for long term drinking as well as 4+ cases of the 2001 Darting Durkheimer Nonnengarten auslese. Sadly, it appears that that will be the last great Muller-Catoir. I don't understand why Darting is not that well thought of.

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