August 30, 2011
Alsatian Rieslings Return to Form
By ERIC ASIMOV
FEW things have made me as happy recently as the wine panel.s tasting of dry rieslings from Alsace. Not only did we absolutely love many of the wines, but also the rieslings actually tasted pretty dry.
Yes, I know, this seems a bit of a truism, like remarking that the steak tastes like steak. Why wouldn.t a dry riesling be dry? But just about anybody who.s been following wines from Alsace for a long time knows that in the past 20 years many historically dry whites have been made with more and more residual sugar, often leaving the wines flaccid, cloying and out of balance. These wines, with no indication of sweetness on their labels, have caused uncertainty and frustration among consumers, and have turned many people away from Alsace.
This tasting restored the excitement for me. The parade of stony, taut, complex and at times majestic wines was thrilling. If anybody, dismayed by recent history, doubts the potential of Alsace to produce wines of beautifully etched delineation, the proof was in the glasses before us.
Perhaps .doubt. is too strong a word. It.s not as if all Alsace whites had sweetened up. Trimbach.s brilliant top rieslings, Clos Sainte Hune (which some people regard as the world.s greatest riesling), and the more affordable CuvéFréric Éile, have always been resolutely dry. Other producers, like Ostertag and Kreydenweiss, have likewise sought to keep their wines dry, unless, of course, the wines were designated as sweet.
I can.t say the problem has ceased to exist. Alsace whites still require consumers to be vigilant. A few weeks ago, I ordered a 2007 riesling Vieilles Vignes from Albert Boxler, a producer whose wines I generally believe are going to be dry. Wrong. The wine was sweet, too sweet, in fact, for the oysters I had ordered, and not entirely balanced.
By contrast, our No. 1 wine in the blind tasting was the 2008 Boxler Sommerberg .E,. a magnificent wine with intense mineral and fruit flavors, so good it earned a rare four-star rating from the panel. Was the wine dry? It sure seemed dry. At the least, it was perfectly balanced. The .E,. by the way, indicates that the wine comes from a specific parcel high on the slope of the grand cru Sommerberg vineyard. Wines from a warmer site lower on the slope are designated .D.. Either, alas, may be hard to find outside restaurants.
For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Joshua Nadel, the beverage director at Locanda Verde and the Dutch, and Carla Rzeszewski, the wine director of the Spotted Pig, the Breslin and the John Dory Oyster Bar. We wanted to focus on the most recent vintages, and this led to a preponderance of 2008s, and also a few less ambitious .09s, which were already on the shelves. It might be that our tasting was a little misleading, as the .08 vintage was conducive to high acidity, which can mask residual sugar that might be more apparent in a vintage of lower acidity, like 2007. Yet, the vintage also illustrates how superb these rieslings can be when they are well balanced.
Why did the wines from Alsace become sweeter? In some cases, no doubt, mass-market producers and néciants have intentionally catered to consumers who like a little sweetness even if they say they prefer dry wines. Many American producers do the same.
Among more conscientious producers, efforts to cut back yields to make wines of greater intensity and concentration can result in grapes of profoundly high sugar levels. These producers also believe in intervening as little as possible in the winemaking, so if the fermentation stopped before all the sugar had been converted into alcohol, well, they believed, that.s what nature intended. Making the wines dry might have resulted in absurdly high levels of alcohol in any case. You could say these wines ended up sweet with the best of intentions.
Now, nothing is intrinsically wrong with sweet wines as long as two conditions are met. First, the sweetness should not come as a surprise. The wines should be clearly labeled as such. The German labeling system, as arcane and complicated as it may seem, ensures pretty much that you know what you are getting.
Second, as I suggested, the wines must be balanced. That is, if a wine does contain residual sugar, it must also contain sufficient acidity to make it refreshing, not flat and fatiguing. Not to belabor the comparison with German rieslings, but they live in a lacy, ethereal world in which, if the residual sugar is high, the alcohol is low, and with enough acidity the wines are delicate and crystalline. In Alsace, where the wines are much more powerful, even wines with residual sugar can have a lot of alcohol, which makes them feel bigger, sweeter and more voluminous.
To combat this lack of balance, one of Alsace.s greatest producers, Zind Humbrecht, has altered its viticulture over the last decade in an effort to produce grapes that achieve ripeness earlier, with less sugar and greater acidity. Olivier Humbrecht, the proprietor along with his father, Léard, said in an e-mail that the transformation in the vineyard has paid off.
.We have higher acid levels now than in the .90s, which makes no sense as the recent vintages were warmer and more precocious,. he said.
In the late 1990s, Zind Humbrecht was always among the last in the region to harvest. With the viticultural changes, he said, Zind Humbrecht is today among the first to start harvesting. The estate also began in the last decade to include a discreet dryness scale, or indice, on each bottle, with 1 representing dry and 5 high sweetness.
Three Zind Humbrecht rieslings were in the tasting (the estate offers a bewildering number of rieslings, each expressing a specific terroir), and each made our Top 10. Our No. 2 wine was the 2008 Zind Humbrecht Grand Cru Brand, a rich, golden wine with honeyed flavors of minerals and flowers. It may have had a touch of residual sugar, but it was so well balanced that it tasted dry to us. Indeed, it was an Indice 2, representing a wine that may not be technically dry, but seems dry on the palate.
Likewise, our No. 3 wine, the 2008 Zind Humbrecht Heimbourg, was also an Indice 2. This seemed lusher than the Brand, with exotic fruit flavors, yet it, too, was superbly balanced and focused. Rounding out the estate.s three wines was our No. 5, the 2008 Clos Windsbuhl. This was an Indice 1, a dry, savory wine that, as Josh put it, seemed like soil speaking through the wine.
Because of our focus on recent vintages, we did not include the top Trimbachs in the tasting (2005 is the current release). We did have the 2008 Schlossberg CuvéSainte Catherine from Weinbach, a wine that is not necessarily dry in every vintage. The .08 was a beautifully balanced, complex, subtle wine that danced lightly through the mouth despite its somewhat thick texture.
This was a rare tasting in which the five most expensive wines in the lineup finished in the Top 5. Our No. 6 bottle, the 2008 Éénts from Bott Geyl, was one of the least expensive bottles in the tasting, at $15, and our best value. It was rich yet light-bodied with enticing stony mineral flavors.
By any estimation, Alsace is one of the planet.s greatest places to grow riesling. It.s thrilling for me to feel that they are restored as an option. With the tasting lingering in my mind, I recently got a bottle of 2008 Zind Humbrecht Clos Häerer riesling to drink at home with dinner. The wine, an Indice 1, was a dry, complex, minerally delight. I will still be cautious with Alsace, researching as best I can a particular wine.s style before a purchase. But I will be hopeful.
Tasting Report
Albert Boxler Alsace Riesling, $53, ****
Grand Cru Sommerberg .E. 2008
Graceful and airy yet intense, with majestic floral, ripe fruit and stony mineral flavors. (Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York)
Zind Humbrecht Alsace Riesling, $90, *** ½ Grand Cru Brand 2008
Rich, golden and deep yet dry and balanced with gorgeous, honeyed flavors of minerals and flowers. (The Sorting Table, Napa, Calif.)
Zind Humbrecht Alsace Riesling, $55, *** ½ Heimbourg 2008
Lush flavors of exotic fruit, citrus and flowers, yet well focused and structured. (The Sorting Table)
Weinbach Alsace Riesling Schlossberg, $43, *** Grand Cru CuvéSainte Catherine 2008
Slightly thick in texture but light in the mouth with savory flavors of fruit, spices and minerals. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, Ala.)
Zind Humbrecht Alsace Riesling, $85, *** Clos Windsbuhl 2008
Dry, tangy and refreshing with savory, chalky flavors. (The Sorting Table)
BEST VALUE
Bott Geyl Alsace Riesling, $15, *** Les Éénts 2008
Rich and golden yet light-bodied with deep, stony mineral flavors. (Winebow, New York)
Kuentz-Bas Alsace Riesling, $16, ** ½ Tradition 2008
Tart and taut with lingering flavors of ripe peaches and mint. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, Calif.)
BarmèBuecher Alsace Riesling, $26, ** ½ Rosenberg 2008
Tightly wound, with lively, spicy flavors of citrus and flowers. (The Petit Pois Corporation, Moorestown, N.J.)
Hugel Alsace Riesling, $19, ** 2009
Clean and dry with stony mineral and citrus flavors. (Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York)
Weinbach Alsace Riesling, $30, ** CuvéThé2009
Rich and a tad hot, with pleasant flavors of minerals and mint. (Vineyard Brands)
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
* james(a)brewingnews.com James.Ellingson(a)StThomas.edu *
