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1 View All Ratings Sort by Winery 2007 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Hengst Selection de Grains Nobles (10.4% alcohol, 247 g/l r.s. and 18.5 grams acidity; the first Hengst SGN at this address) Full gold. Remarkably varietal, essence-ofgewurztraminer aromas for a wine at this extreme level of ripeness and botrytis: all yellow fruits, rose petal and spices, lifted by bright acidity. Glyceral-thick, pure and chewy as a solid, with utterly captivating and amazingly clean high-toned flavors of lichee, jasmine, rose, linden flower, white pepper and smoked bacon. Finishes with astounding spicy persistence and powerful structure. This one may go 50 years. 98(+?) 2007 Domaine Schoffit Pinot Gris Rangen Clos Saint Theobald (9.4% alcohol, 265 g/l r.s. and 9.5 acidity) Pale yellow-gold. Almost a raisiny ripeness to the nose but with superb lift to the nobly rotten aromas of crystallized peach, honeycomb and orange marmalade. Glyceral-thick but with superb acidity giving this nectar even more energy and finesse than the VT. An essence of pure, carnal, botrytized pinot gris that almost magically retains the character of the variety. Wonderfully long and alive, with an almost citric brightness on the back. I don't expect to experience another bottle of this elixir, but it sure is easy to drink Domaine Albert Mann Pinot Gris Altenbourg Le Tri (9.5% alcohol, 237 g/l r.s. and 10.2 grams acidity) Bright, full yellowgold. Knockout high-toned nose offers roasted, botrytis-rich aromas of honeycomb, tobacco, cherry-almond and vanilla. Silky and viscous on entry, then sharply delineated in the middle owing to powerful ripe acidity, which intensifies the saline flavors of honey, nougat, caramel and peach syrup. Like an essence of pinot gris. The incredibly long finish features an exhilarating minty lift and a wonderfully light touch. This has near-perfect balance Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris Altenbourg Quintessence de Grains Nobles Cuvee d'or ($624; 10% alcohol, 174 g/l r.s. and 8.9 acidity) Pure botrytis nose dominated by tangy crystallized orange and lemon peel. Wonderfully sweet but cut by sharp citrussy acidity that gives this extremely

2 unevolved wine an almost painful quality today. It's remarkable that the varietal character comes through so clearly at this level of ripeness. The bracing finish mounts inexorably and goes on for minutes. An extraordinary sweet wine, likely to last for two or three decades Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Mambourg Selection de Grains Nobles Quintessence ($624; 10.8% alcohol, 1 g/l r.s. and 5.8 acidity) Full, deep yellow. Incredibly pure, high-toned nose offers near-magical floral lift to its mirabelle and peach fruit. Superripe, seamless and spherical, conveying an explosively primary quality to its yellow fruit flavors and a degree of finesse that's rare for gewurztraminer at this extreme level of ripeness. That ineffable floral treble note gives the endless finish a wonderfully perfumed, fresh quality Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl Selection de Grains Nobles Trie Speciale (about 500 g/l r.s. and 5% alcohol) Full orange-gold. Cherry-almond, orange liqueur and exotic spices on the nose. A freak of nature, and yet it somehow tastes like pinot gris, with orange oil and spices dominating. Incredible acidity lifts this out of the shockingly intense category and across the painful threshold. Offers an impossible blend of solidity and sweetness on the one hand and bracing acids on the other. How to score this? Domaine Leon Beyer Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles Bright golden yellow. Fabulous rot-ennobled, high-toned aromas of apricot and honey. Wonderfully glyceral yet tangy on the palate, with a chewy quality and uncanny acid thrust to the creamy, honeyed flavors. Like an essence of botrytized fruit. The palate-staining finish goes on and on. This may ultimately be labeled Quintessence. Note that the Beyer wines routinely carry lower residual sugar at every level of the hierarchy than the overwhelming majority of Alsace wines. A wine labeled Quintessence elsewhere would be likely to have at least 250 to 300 grams of r.s. but this one has only 175. A masterpiece, but it would be a crime to drink it in its youth. 97(+?) 2007 Domaine Albert Mann Riesling Schlossberg Selection de Grains Noble L'Epicentre (made from a 1942 parcel in the center of this grand cru; the fruit was picked "in the style of an ice wine" on November 26, according to Barthelme) Pale, bright yellow. Reticent but pure and complex nose

3 suggests lime, crushed stone and botanical herbs; conveys a distinct "cold fruit" character. Then incredibly pure, intense and penetrating, if still youthfully unevolved, with a powerful, three-dimensional impression of extract and a crystalline purity. The wine's stony, saline quality titillates the salivary glands. A real magic act: this is 10.5% alcohol, with 178 g/l r.s. and 5 grams of acidity, but from its sheer penetration on the palate I would have guessed 9 or 10 grams of acidity. This should develop more complexity over a period of decades. There are just 160 liters of this elixir, and not all the grapes were affected by noble rot Hugel et Fils Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles ($193) Bright yellow-gold. Pungent, pristine aromas of citrus fruits, flowers and lichee; wonderfully elegant on the nose. Utterly brilliant in the mouth, with great purity and intensity to its yellow fruits and flowers, all sharpened by firm (7.7 grams per liter) acidity. A saline element and some honey in the background just add to the complexity of this essence of gewurztraminer. Wonderfully racy for a wine with 172 g/l r.s., and incredibly long on the aftertaste. It's premature to compare this to Hugel's epic 1976 Gewurztraminer SGN bottlings, but this wine may be even finer. 97(+?) 2007 Domaine Schoffit Pinot Gris Rangen Clos Saint Theobald Selection de Grains Nobles Larmes de Lave (4.9% alcohol, 510 g/l r.s. and 12.8 acidity; from a parcel at the top of the slope, harvested five days after the regular SGN with 100% botrytized berries) Bright yellow-gold. Racy but reticent aromas of fresh apricot, peach and pineapple, plus a whiff of bandaid. Pure honeyed, resiny botrytis in the mouth, with shocking acidity somehow giving lift and precision to this incredibly glyceral wine. Not far off in balance and style from Olivier Humbrecht's 2005 Trie Speciale from Rangen pinot gris. The explosive finish features a saline suggestion of soil and shocking lift. This is barely wine, and yet it's virtually impossible to spit. 96(+?) 2007 Domaine Albert Mann Pinot Gris Furstentum Le Tri (7% alcohol, 320 g/l r.s. and 11 grams acidity) Deep gold with orange highlights. High-toned, slightly eau de vie-like aromas of caramel, botanical herbs and honey, with a whiff of cognac; smells like a maturing Yquem. Pours as thick as an essencia, showing glyceral flavors of honey and quetsch and an almost painful sweetness. A thick and chewy monster that is somehow kept fresh by off-the-charts acidity. Today I marginally prefer the Altenbourg Tri for its lighter touch, but then the Furstentum probably needs 20 years to become wine. Both of these special selections aged on their lees in new Allier barrels.

4 96(+?) 2007 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Goldert Selection de Grains Nobles (this was only racked in July following a long fermentation) Full gold. Musky, highly perfumed nose offers honey, flowers, smoke and marzipan; not as spicy as the Hengst SGN. Then thick and smooth, if not quite as chewy as the Hengst, with superb acidity leavening the impression of extract. With its rose petal, marzipan and building spiciness, and its strong acids, this comes off as almost magically light for SGN. Finishes with great purity and persistence. This was made in a new 600-liter cask, even though Humbrecht normally avoids using new wood for gewurztraminer. But there's little sign of oak here Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Selection de Grains Nobles (9.5% alcohol, 227 g/l r.s.) Deep, bright yellow. Great purity and lift to the hugely botrytized aromas of honey, menthol, botanical herbs and mint. Silky on entry, then impossibly concentrated and glyceral in the mid-palate; as chewy as a solid but with exhilarating lift making this impossible to spit. An incredible, endless and utterly unevolved wine that currently shows more structure than fruit. Tastes even sweeter on the back end than its 227 g/l residual sugar would indicate, as there is no sign of alcohol. I'd sock this away for a good 10 to 15 years. 96(+?) 2007 Domaine Albert Mann Muscat Altenbourg "Le Tri" (10.5% alcohol, 177 g/l r.s., 4.9 grams acidity) Good pale yellow. Lovely tangy botrytis lift to the aromas of honey, ginseng, caramel, flowers, medicinal herbs and Oriental spices. Fat, lush and dense, with supersweet yet almost magically fresh flavors of crystallized peach, honey and spices complemented by red berry hints of raspberry and strawberry; tastes like crushed grapes. The impression of brisk acidity here is far stronger than the actual number, giving this an exhilarating sugar/acid balance. Finishes with a palate-staining whiplash of flavor. I'm not sure I would have identified this nectar as muscat Domaine Ostertag Gewurztraminer Fronholz Selection de Grains Nobles (10% alcohol, 290 g/l r.s. and 5.4 acidity) Pale gold. Pure, high-toned, rot-ennobled aromas of apricot, orange marmalade, pineapple and honey. Wonderfully thick yet tangy on the palate, with rampant, pure botrytis giving the wine superb verve in spite of its extraordinarily chewy texture. More glyceral and saline than the Vignoble d'epfig SGN, but with a silkier texture and greater complexity and verve that must come from this quartz-rich sandy soil. Although this wine pours as thickly as motor oil, from its palate-saturating, gripping finish I would never have

5 guessed that it's nearly 30% sugar Domaine Leon Beyer Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles ($120; for 375 ml.) Pale yellow-gold. Deeply pitched, very sweet, nobly rotten aromas of apricot, honeycomb and earth. Glyceral and supersweet; opulent and quite powerful, but with no shortage of lift. With its great honeyed sweetness and tactile finish, this may be more typical of SGN today, but the '07 is nobler. I underrated this wine two years ago when I scored it 93 points Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Mambourg Selection de Grains Nobles ($373; 10% alcohol, 153 g/l r.s. and 6.2 acidity) Pale yellow. Spicy yellow fruits and flowers on the inviting nose. Supersweet, tactile and suave, offering an uncanny combination of plush texture, elegance and power. This boasts really explosive fruit and an exceptionally long, palate-caressing finish. Wonderfully classy SGN, and more gripping than the Altenbourg Domaine Albert Mann Riesling Schlossberg Selection de Grains Noble (12% alcohol, 137 g/l r.s. and 5.4 acidity) Full, bright yellow. Pure aromas of pear liqueur, lime tea and wild rose suggest very clean botrytis. Racy, pure flavors of pear, white nectarine and honey are lifted by the wild rose note. Boasts a glyceral side but also communicates a wonderfully juicy quality for a wine with average acidity; this is like tickling your nose with a feather. The extremely intense, palatesaturating finish conveys an impression of huge extract Domaine Leon Beyer Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles ($120; for 375 ml.; 140 g/l r.s.) Bright, pale yellow-gold. Wonderfully pure, fresh aromas of rose petal, cured meats and sexy brown spices. Like liquid silk in the mouth, with an impossibly fine-grained texture to the yellow fruit and spice flavors. Boasts compelling fruit and a wonderfully light touch, but this can't quite match the otherworldly pinot gris SGN for sheer intensity. Less thick than the pinot gris, but impeccably made SGN, finishing with outstanding energy. 95(+?) 2007 Domaine Albert Boxler Riesling Sommerberg Selection de Grains Noble (a selection of 100% botrytized berries; 160 g/l r.s. with 12% alcohol)

6 Fresh pale yellow-gold. Musky, high-toned aromas of pineapple, grapefruit, peach and stone. The palate offers uncanny intensity and freshness; not a glyceral style of SGN but utterly seamless, with great purity and class to its flavors of ripe grapefruit, mandarin orange and honey. This already stains the mouth with near-painful flavor intensity but it's an infant today. 95(+?) 2007 Domaine Meyer Fonne Gewurztraminer Sporen Selection de Grains Nobles Bright gold. Pure, tangy, botrytis-rich aromas of apricot, peach syrup, orange, honey, cured meats and spices, all lifted by a note of lily. A glyceral, honeyed liqueur of gewurztraminer in the mouth, with wonderfully fresh, concentrated, palate-staining flavors of game, fruit salad and spices. At once lush and almost painfully intense. This has 180 grams of residual sugar yet finishes with a distinctly firm edge, saturating every millimeter of the palate. 95(+?) 2005 Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris Altenbourg Selection de Grains Nobles ($354; from fruit picked after the Quintessence; 11% alcohol, 143 g/l r.s. and 8.6 acidity) Carnal, gamey aromas of honey and damp earth. Wonderfully pure and intense, with powerful acids framing the varietally accurate flavors of orange, lemon and spices. Like a liquid tarte tatin Very sweet, dense and tactile on the extremely long finish Hugel et Fils Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles ($172; with 28% potential alcohol, these were the most sugar-laden grapes in pinot gris since the 19 vintage; 212 g/l r.s. with 11 grams of acidity) Full medium gold. Pure, high-toned botrytis notes of fruit salad, honey and earth. Then penetrating and almost painfully gripping, with huge acidity leavening the wine's glyceral texture and giving the apricot and saline flavors an almost brutal quality today. This extremely young wine is all extract and power today. Finishes with explosive, building length Domaine Albert Mann Gewurztraminer Furstentum Selection de Grains Nobles (11% alcohol, 140 g/l r.s. and 4.1 acidity) Bright yellow. Explosive aromas of mirabelle, cured meat, rose petal, lilac, cinnamon, curry and lichee; utterly gewurztraminer despite the extreme level of ripeness. Offers great life in the mouth; airy and not at all heavy, with superb aromatic lift to the flavors of mirabelle dried flowers and soft spices. A very classy SGN with a remarkably light touch. Really saturates the palate with perfume. Again, this tastes higher in acidity than the

7 numbers suggest. This could make a strong argument for Furstentum being one of Alsace's premier sites for gewurztraminer; indeed, Maurice Barthelme told me that Mann can achieve this level of quality every two or three years! Domaine Ostertag Gewurztraminer Vignoble d'epfig Selection de Grains Nobles (11.2% alcohol, 200 g/l r.s. and 5 grams of acid) Pale yellow-gold. Honey, yellow peach, caraway seed and gingery spices on the nose. Supersweet and honeyed, showing a more glyceral texture and more obvious SGN intensity than the Muenchberg Riesling SGN. Wonderfully chewy, high-toned wine with an exotic spice character throughout. Finishes thick and extremely long. "The SGNs in 2007 have very low acidity, and the grape skins were almost too clean, with no filaments at all," Ostertag commented. "And yet we have higher-than-usual levels of volatile acidity, which is very strange." Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Furstentum ($86) Pale yellow. Deep aromas of nutmeg, smoked meat and candied fruits, with a limestone lift. Exhilarating yellow fruit and spice flavors are silky, lush, sweet and utterly seamless. A spherical essence of the variety, finishing with perfumed spice and floral character and terrific length and verve. The fruit in this site normally ripens very slowly, and the harvest took place quite late in Domaine Marcel Deiss Schoenenbourg Very pale yellow. Captivating, high-pitched aromas of ginger, curry powder, botanical herbs, licorice and lichee, with stony minerality underneath. Dense, tactile and spice, with outstanding clarity and cut to its pungent spice and mineral flavors. Pure, soil-driven wine with bracing acidity and outstanding persistence. But barely hinting at its personality today. This wine, too, is likely to rate a higher score a decade down the road Domaine Marc Tempe Gewurztraminer Mambourg (bottled in August of 2007) Full yellow. Explosive nose offers rose petal, nutmeg, crystallized lemon peel and cured meats. Wonderfully intense and penetrating, with a combination of bright acidity and a tight core of chalky minerality giving the orange and grapefruit flavors terrific cut. There's fat here but also an exhilarating juicy quality. Finishes with vibrant, palate-staining persistence. This is a great terroir for gewurztraminer, notes Tempe, but it's essential to hold yields down-not

8 hard to do here as the youngest vines are 40 years of age. Even better than my rating from the barrel Domaine Marcel Deiss Altenberg de Bergheim ($125) Straw-gold. Explosive, perfumed nose combines strong botrytis notes of honey and orange liqueur with aromatic botanical herbs and spices. Sweet, extremely intense and tactile, boasting rare density and energy for the vintage. This powerful wine boasts outstanding fruit and structure. One of the longest wines I tasted on my Alsace tour thanks to a late whiplash of spice. 94(+?) 2007 Domaine Albert Boxler Gewurztraminer Brand Vendange Tardive (there's no Brand normale in 2007) Bright full yellow. Subtle, pure aromas of peach, yellow plum and licorice; nothing exotic about the nose. Then juicy and tactile, with strong minerality and great finesse to the peach and spice flavors. This is carrying 70 grams of residual sugar but the overall impression is one of cut, balance and vivacity. Finishes wonderfully pure and long, with a palate-dusting impression of solidity. A great success: I can't recall having tasted a finer gewurztraminer at this address Domaine Barmes-Buecher Gewurztraminer Pfersigberg Vendanges Tardives Bright yellow. Pure nose offers hints of exotic fruits, honey, spices and iodine. Very rich and sweet, even glyceral, but with the power and thrust of calcaire giving grip and lift to the piquant, almost saline flavors of yellow fruits, honey and iodine. Wonderfully smooth, intense wine with a scented finish that really stains the palate and expands in the mouth Trimbach Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles Hors Choix Pale color. Very pure, inviting nose offers mirabelle, smoked meat, nutmeg and mace. Dense, glyceral and superconcentrated; like an essence of spice. Here, too, the wine's thickness is perfectly cut by sound, ripe acidity, giving it impeccable balance and considerable early sexy appeal. Offers a wonderful combination of fresh fruit and pure botrytis spiciness. This bottling was previously made in 2000 and Domaine Kuentz-Bas Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles Cuvee Jeremy (10% alcohol with 240 g/l r.s.) Bright yellow-gold color. Pure,

9 understated nose offers musky orange and peach; smells like crushed grapes! Silky on entry, then wonderfully glyceral but weightless in the middle palate, with captivating flavors of orange peel, peach candy and honey. Nothing roasted about this wonderfully fresh and subtle wine. This utterly seamless SGN boasts great finesse. Finishes with superb mounting sweetness and terrific precision and grip Domaine Albert Mann Gewurztraminer Furstentum Vieilles Vignes ($45) Bright straw-yellow. Explosive, complex aromas of rose petal, violet, banana, cherry, cured meats and spices. Then superripe and large-scaled in the mouth, but with compelling focus to its floral flavors. Finishes with great purity and outstanding sappy persistence; in fact, it's almost surprisingly cool on the aftertaste, with a saline, dusty quality that saturates the palate. This one fermented for a long time and went through its malolactic fermentation. 94(+?) 2007 Domaine Meyer Fonne Gewurztraminer Sporen (Meyer's first vintage from a new parcel of degenerating 23- and 35- year-old vines that produced a tiny crop in 2007) Bright yellow. Explosive aromas of passion fruit, fresh apricot, cured meat, lichee and spices. Quite scented and fine in the mouth, with penetrating, racy acidity giving this wine amazing precision and cut. Wonderfully dense, clean and spicy gewurztraminer with great verve and inner-mouth perfume; like an essence of the grape. The rising, palate-staining finish offers terrific lift. With aeration, this VT-weight wine (13.1% alcohol with 55 g/l r.s.) really shut down in the glass, suggesting it will need several years of aging. A knockout. These vines were picked on October 23, and the one-third portion rich in botrytis was reserved to make an SGN. 94(+?) 2007 Domaine Rene Mure/Clos St. Landelin Pinot Gris Clos St. Landelin Selection de Grains Nobles Full orange-gold. Superripe, roasted aromas of honeycomb, dried apricot and toffee. Dense, high-toned and thick, with a hugely unctuous texture given shape and lift by ungodly acidity (Mure claimed 14 grams per liter). As chewy as a solid, and almost saline in its sheer extract. It's hard to scrape this off your palate. A wine like this could live for decades on its acidity. This remarkable botrytis wine is carrying 350 grams of residual sugar and roughly 8.5% alcohol Domaine Dirler-Cade Gewurztraminer Spiegel Selection de Grains Nobles (from a single trie that brought in fruit with about 60% noble rot,

10 according to Dirler) Very pale color. Tangy aromas of apricot, peach and honey. Sweet, fat and honeyed in the mouth, with a wonderfully round, glyceral texture. Offers almost confectionery sweetness and thickness of fruit but also a liveliness and purity of botrytis that gives it superb balance and sex appeal. Perhaps best today on the slow-building, palatestaining finish. This is 11.8% alcohol with 152 g/l r.s. As we finished this epic tasting with these very sweet wines, Dirler noted "it's great to have good dry riesling in 2007!" Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune Very pale, clear color. Extremely unevolved aromas of quinine, mint, lime, white flowers and white truffle. Dense and exhilarating, with an oily texture and piquant lime and mineral flavors that saturate the palate. Wonderfully pure and stony riesling, but still a baby. Today this is all about grip. The r.s. here is just 1.7 grams per liter, according to Pierre Trimbach, who compares this wine to the superb 2001 Clos Ste. Hune (he's also a great fan of the '05). 94(+?) 2007 Domaine Paul Blanck Riesling Furstentum Selection de Grains Nobles Knockout nose combines racy fresh apricot, a deep honeyed quality and a whiff of game. Boasts a rare combination of glyceral-rich but extremely fresh fruit, with very strong acidity giving cut and lift to the captivating white peach flavor. The nobly rotten fruit here was the product of three tries over a period of three weeks. An SGN of compelling class and finesse, with an extremely long, weightless aftertaste. According to Frederic Blanck, this has 120 g/l r.s. and more than 10 grams of acidity Domaine Meyer Fonne Gewurztraminer Furstentum Vieilles Vignes Pale golden-yellow. Varietally expressive aromas of overripe peach, smoky cured meats and clove. Fat, silky and wonderfully fine-grained, with lovely ripe acidity giving lift to this magically smooth wine. Very fresh on the back end but without a trace of phenolic bitterness. This offers a similar balance to the old-vines Wineck-Schlossberg but is more expressive and suave in the early going, benefiting from lovely calcaire energy. Another utterly compelling 2007 gewurztraminer Domaine Zind Humbrecht Riesling Brand Selection de Grains Nobles (half bottle) ($165; for 375 ml.; 12% alcohol, 185 g/l r.s. and 6.2 acidity) Bright gold-tinged yellow. Tangy tropical fruits, fresh apricot and a whiff of celery on the captivating nose. Glyceral, chewy and wonderfully thick, with great tactile intensity to the flavors of fruits, spices, flowers,

11 marzipan and honey; it's hard to scrape this off your palate. A superb expression of roasted botrytis, finishing with saline soil tones and great palate-staining sweetness. This is the first riesling SGN Olivier Humbrecht has made from this site, and only the third riesling SGN overall, following the 19 Clos Windsbuhl and the 1998 Rangen. These old vines yielded the equivalent of 12 hectoliters per hectare. A knockout Domaine Marcel Deiss Schoenenbourg ($125) Pale gold. Knockout perfume of orange, spices, crushed stone and botanical herbs. Wonderfully sappy orange, peach and botanical herb flavors convey a remarkably light touch in spite of the wine's sweetness and near-glyceral texture. Extremely suave and almost magically pure for the year ("zero percent grey rot," says Deiss), with palate-staining fruit intensity and superb back-end lift and length. This extremely young wine belongs on the same table as the '05 and '04, which is a great accomplishment in light of the challenges of this vintage. 94(+?) 2007 Domaine Barmes-Buecher Gewurztraminer Steingrubler Vendange Tardive (some of this was bottled in magnums) Good pale, bright yellow. Pure, precise aromas and flavors of lemon, minerals, lichee and curry powder; not exuberant or perfumey today. Then broad, aromatic and quite fine in the mouth, with lovely definition to the flavors of spices and white flowers. Wonderfully fine-grained, balanced, honest gewurztraminer with harmonious acids buffering its 80 grams of sweetness. Finishes subtle and quite long, with a fine dusting of tannins and an impression of density without weight. A beauty Domaine Marcel Deiss Burg (this blend includes all 13 Alsace varieties, with the gewurztraminer component representing between 20% and 25%; Deiss considers Burg to be his longest ager following the Schoenenbourg) Good bright pale yellow. Pure, musky, highly complex nose melds citrus peel, flowers, brown spices, smoke and lichee. Very rich, dense and tactile yet finegrained, with compelling depth of flavor, great verve and a captivating balance of sugars (35 g/l r.s., according to Deiss) and acids. The note of graphite in the mouth is due to the cold clay soil, says Deiss. Finishes with a superb whiplash of fruits and flowers and outstanding aromatic persistence. A great young example of this bottling. Deiss told me he's enjoying the 1995 right now. 93(+?) 2005 Domaine Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles

12 ($125) Pale golden-straw color. Complex, subtly cool aromas of orange marmalade, citrus peel, mirabelle, acacia honey, cinnamon and earth. Dense, thick and superripe, with a downright spherical texture and explosive length. Boasts wonderful concentration of acidity, with a strong lemon zest flavor framing the supersweet flavors, but today this is merely the outline of a wine. And yet, after the remarkable progression of Deiss's idiosyncratic terroir wines, it was still easier to taste. "A hint of grey rot helps to open the wine," notes Deiss, who told me that the 2007 version of this wine, which featured a high percentage of noble rot, was extremely closed at the moment Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Furstentum Vendange Tardive ($120) Light yellow. A bit more open on the nose than the Altenbourg, offering yellow fruits and honey. Plump, broad and extract-rich, with a serious tannic structure supporting its yellow fruit and spice flavors. Tastable now but there's much more to come Domaine Schoffit Gewurztraminer Rangen Clos Saint Theobald Full straw-yellow with a green tinge. Very pure, fresh, restrained aromas of smoky flint and crushed stone, with lively yellow fruits in the background. Silky on entry, then sweet in the middle, but with strong stony minerality giving structure to the moderately glyceral peach and honey flavors. Tastes far less sweet than its 80 g/l r.s. would indicate. Finishes with superb mounting length. A beauty Domaine Schoffit Gewurztraminer Rangen Clos Saint Theobald Vendange Tardive Pale yellow-gold. Deeply pitched aromas of honey, smoke and earth; showing less lift than the "regular" grand cru. Then fatter and more glyceral on the palate, with superb richness and depth and enough acidity to give shape to the wine. Much less open today than the regular grand cru-in fact a bit youthfully stunted-but the honeyed, very long finish really resounds. This will require at least a few years of cellaring Domaine Schoffit Pinot Gris Rangen Clos Saint Theobald Schistes (16.5% alcohol with 20 g/l r.s.) Pale, green-tinged color. Pure, highpitched nose melds lime blossom, quinine, smoky flint, crushed stone and mocha; smells a bit like riesling from this site. Juicy, precise and quite dry but with a rich, tactile mouth feel suggesting strong dry extract. Wonderfully sappy wine with terrific concentration and cut. Schoffit told me that he can't sell this style to his private clients because they believe that Rangen pinot gris must be rich and sweet. But this

13 would make for a great dinner-table wine with its minerality and power Domaine Schoffit Pinot Gris Rangen Clos Saint Theobald Vendanges Tardives (13.2% alcohol with g/l r.s.) Full, bright yellow. Peach, honey and a resiny nuance on the nose. Supersweet but with lively harmonious acidity giving shape and thrust to the honey and fruit salad flavors. Wonderfully subtle, fine-grained wine with superb fruit. The noble rot came on very slowly here. This should gain in complexity with time in bottle. This went through its malolactic fermentation but the two pinot gris SGNs did not. Schoffit bottled a lot of magnums of all three of these wines Domaine Leon Beyer Gewurztraminer Comtes d'eguisheim ($55) Bright straw-yellow. Pure, sexy aromas of spiced meats and clove. Broad, spicy and fat with fruit; as rich and horizontal as this is in the mouth, it also boasts terrific definition and subtlety. This, too, tastes sweeter than its four grams of sugar would indicate. But note that this wine will doubtless come across as drier and even more classic by the time it's released: Beyer was about to ship the 2003 (!) at the time of my visit. An outstanding vintage for this bottling Domaine Albert Boxler Riesling Sommerberg "D" (Dudenstein) Pale, bright straw. Closed but pure nose hints at grapefruit pith, crushed stone, curry powder and violet. Sweet, supple and superconcentrated, with tangy, botrytis-influenced apricot, peach and honey flavors sharpened by brilliant acidity. This already hints at a creamy sweetness in the middle palate but really needs at least four or five years of additional time in bottle. The brisk, bracing, grapefruity finish conveys a powerfully sappy impression. The acid/fruit balance here is exhilarating. 93(+?) 2006 Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Mambourg Selection de Grains Nobles ($336; 12% alcohol, 127 g/l r.s. and 6.2 grams of acidity) Good full yellow. Sexy, fleshy aromas of honey and flowers. Rich, glyceral and supersweet; not hugely complex but a fruit bomb of an SGN with solid framing acidity. A remarkably "sunny" style of wine in the context of the year. Finishes ripe and surprisingly open, but with very good grip to its yellow fruit flavors. 93

14 2007 Josmeyer Riesling Hengst Bright pale yellow. Expressive, musky aromas of minerals, quinine and spice. Broad, full and fat, with superb volume to the lemon-lime, quinine and mineral flavors. This dusty, vibrant wine conveys an almost threedimensional impression of extract and really saturates the palate. There's nothing hard about it even today, but this is built for a long evolution in bottle. The fermentation took seven months and Meyer had to heat the tank to get it to finish. Just six grams of r.s. here Domaine Ostertag Riesling Muenchberg Vendanges Tardives (10.6% alcohol, 100 g/l r.s. and 7 grams acidity) Full yellow. Pristine, primal aromas of white peach, grapefruit and spices. Penetrating and sharply delineated thanks to strong stony minerality; this primary, juicy fruit bomb is actually lower in acidity than the dry riesling from this site but seems less sweet than its actual residual sugar. Wonderfully sappy white peach flavor really grips the palate. But lay this one down to get the full terroir effect Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Clos Windsbuhl (racked; 12.4% alcohol with 74 g/l r.s.) Candied citrus peel, flowers and herbs on the nose and palate. Glyceral-rich but almost magically juicy, with lovely citric cut intensifying the wine's superb fruit. Barely 10% botrytized fruit here. This took a long time to ferment its sugars and went through malolactic fermentation, but it's wonderfully high-pitched and pure, with an exhilarating combination of low alcohol and brisk acidity. A knockout in the making, and probably a wine that will be best enjoyed on its own Domaine Meyer Fonne Gewurztraminer Wineck-Schlossberg ($45) Bright, full yellow. Sexy yellow fruits, honey, cured meat, bergamot and clove on the nose. Fat and silky on entry, then broader and riper than the Sporen but without that wine's cut or acidity. This is from early-picked fruit in a sun-drenched site, and is a classically spicy, granitic expression of the variety, with an almost roasted VT aspect. I suspect that many tasters would describe this as more typical gewurztraminer than the Sporen. Finishes with terrific spicy lift Domaine Dirler-Cade Riesling Kessler Selection de Grains Nobles (11.6% alcohol, 112 g/l r.s. and 8 grams acidity) Pale color. Pungent aromas of lime liqueur, orange and ginger. A sweet, sexy fruit bomb in

15 the mouth, with sappy flavors of lime, honey and exotic fruits. Not the last word in complexity but the purity and intensity of fruit here are remarkable Josmeyer Riesling Hengst Samain Bright, pale yellow-green. Very ripe aromas of peach and curry powder. Then denser and richer but tighter than the regular Hengst, with a strong dusty stone minerality giving the wine a vibrant character as well as an element of delicacy. Finishes complex, firm and gripping, with an even drier impression than the regular Hengst. From richer grapes high in extract but not affected by botrytis, according to Meyer Domaine Dirler-Cade Gewurztraminer Kitterle Quintessential varietal aromas of cured meats and cinnamon. Supple, spicy and aromatic, with the intense cinnamon character joined by subtle notes of peony and pineapple. Dusts the palate with spices on the very long finish. A knockout, and accessible already Domaine Dirler-Cade Gewurztraminer Saering Vendange Tardive Pale color. Captivating aromas of orange peel, flowers and cumin. Creamy, superconcentrated and deep, with an unctuous texture leavened by harmonious acidity. Notes of blood orange and dusty spices give this great appeal today. Wonderfully sweet, open wine with terrific balance Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Selection de Grains Nobles (half bottle) ($354) Spices and exotic flowers on the recent nose. Then fairly glyceral in the mouth but quite firm-edged for all its sweetness. Wonderfully tactile, chewy wine but not yet demonstrative. Builds slowly and mounts impressively on the very long, discreet finish, which features vibrant acidity and citric freshness. 93(+?) 2005 Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris Altenbourg Vendange Tardive ($122; 113 g/l r.s.; no '06 was made) Bright yellow. Exotic, honeyed aromas of tropical fruits, butter and smoke. Fat, sweet and very rich, with a distinctly exotic honeyed character contributing to this very rich wine's glyceral texture. A huge VT (the grapes were picked at near-sgn must weight) but not heavy in spite of a suggestion of raisin, owing to

16 strong, tangy acidity (reportedly nine grams per liter) concentrated by botrytis. Very long on the aftertaste Domaine Albert Mann Pinot Gris Furstentum Soil-driven aromas of orange, lime, lemon verbena, violet, smoke and flowers. Concentrated and powerful, with terrific spicy lift and uncanny inner-mouth energy for pinot gris. Perhaps a bit youthfully aggressive today but this boasts outstanding energy and density. I picked up a wild garlic note that Barthelme said is characteristic of Furstentum. Offers superb palate-staining persistence. This should be great in ten years. Hail cut the yield here to 25 hectoliters per hectare. Barthelme says that this and the Cuvee Albert remind him of "the old classic pinot gris style of the mid-'90s," and notes that this was the first vintage since those days in which this wine was done entirely in stainless steel Domaine Albert Mann Riesling Schlossberg Vendanges Tardives Pale, bright yellow. Highly nuanced nose combines pear, cherry, mirabelle, crushed stone, botanical herbs and peppermint. Like liquid silk on entry, then sappy and sharply focused in the mid-palate, with flavors of crystallized mandarin orange, underripe pineapple and ruby grapefruit all lifted by bright acidity. Finishes very long and pure, with terrific juicy cut. A wonderful example of clean botrytis here: I could drink a wine like this forever. 93(+?) 2007 Domaine Barmes-Buecher Gewurztraminer Hengst Selection de Grains Nobles (from a trie, which Barmes said was the only one he did in 2007; the rest of this fruit went into the Herrenweg) Pale bright golden-yellow. Deep, sappy nose of yellow fruits and spices. Glyceral-verging-onviscous, with about 100 g/l r.s., but with lovely vivacity from brisk acidity. There's a deep spiciness that almost seems to come from oak. Finishes extremely long and a bit tannic, with a suggestion of raisined grapes but also terrific verve and lift. Left behind aromas of cured meats and spices. Not as complex today as the Steingrubler or Pfersigberg, but then this really needs six or seven years to express itself. 93(+?) 2005 Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Altenbourg Selection de Grains Nobles ($373; 10.8% alcohol, 144 g/l r.s. and 5.9 acidity) Bright yellow. Wild, complex nose melds yellow plum, botanical herbs and cardamom. Sweet, lush and creamy in the middle, with ripe acidity framing the very ripe, glyceral fruit and floral flavors. Not hugely rich for SGN but fine-grained, elegant and accessible. Finishes very long and sweet, with lovely floral

17 lift Domaine Albert Boxler Riesling Brand "K" (from Kirschberg) Bright, pale yellow. Musky stone and underripe pineapple on the nose. Dense and juicy but youthfully imploded, with enticing citrus lift to the flavors of flowers and stone. There's a palatesaturating saline quality here that contributes to an impression of breadth and grip. Finishes with superb purity and persistence. Just four grams of r.s., which means this wine comes across as quite dry. 93(+?) 2007 Domaine Dirler-Cade Riesling Kessler Bright, pale color. Lemon, lime, minerals, licorice and tarragon on the nose and palate. Dense, large-scaled (close to 14% alcohol) and very young, conveying an impression of brooding power. But still wonderfully aromatic in the middle palate owing to its excellent acidity. This superripe wine ("always a massive style," according to Dirler) really stains the palate on the aftertaste. Reminded me of a big Smaragd riesling from the Wachau Domaine Marcel Deiss Mambourg (includes "all the pinots but no gewurztraminer") Fairly pale color. Captivating aromas of brown spices, smoke and nuts; strong suggestion of curry powder. Highly concentrated and on the dry side, with the powerful spice character contributing to the impression of force. Conveys a tactile sense of high dry extract and finishes with a piquant note of orange peel. Utterly singular wine, and a worthy follow-up to the '05, which I described as "one of the wildest wines I smelled" in (+?) 2007 Domaine Albert Boxler Pinot Gris Sommerberg Pale straw-yellow. Very pure aromas of stone fruits, smoke, spices and flowers; this reminded me of a Puligny-Montrachet. Thick but bright; surprisingly sweet (about 30 g/l r.s.) but with terrific enlivening acidity giving the fruit flavors a sappy quality. A bit drier on the explosive finish. This can't match the Sommerberg rieslings for sheer class but it offers wonderful balance and eclat And it's hardly Puligny-like on the palate Domaine Marcel Deiss Altenberg de Bergheim Bright yellow. Fascinating nose offers lime, lichee, exotic Thai spices,

18 lemon grass, vanilla and menthol. Wonderfully sappy and tactile wine with remarkable juiciness for its glyceral texture. The aromatic herbs and spices dust the palate on the back end, leaving the finish exhilaratingly dry. The sun-drenched terroir has dominated the vintage, notes Deiss, who told me he picked here with a high percentage of noble rot. My score is just a starting point for this wine, which is painfully young Domaine Dirler-Cade Riesling Kitterle Expressive aromas of underripe pineapple and violet. A real fruit bomb in the mouth, with a lusher, more accessible texture than the foregoing grand crus but plenty of ripe acidity to give the wine shape. Finishes very long and pure, with an almost painful intensity to its white peach flavor owing to surprisingly firm acids (8.8 grams per liter, to go with 8 grams of residual sugar). This riesling was unusually fruity since the outset, Dirler noted Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Vendanges Tardives ($145) Pale yellow. Quite closed on the nose, hinting at pineapple and stone. Creamy-sweet yet juicy and vibrant in the mouth, with an exotic pineapple flavor lifted by brisk acidity. Finishes sweet, very long and youthfully firm but not hard. This would appear to need more time than the '06 version. 92(+?) 2007 Domaine Meyer Fonne Riesling Kaefferkopf ($41) Pure but closed nose hints at orange, medicinal herbs, ginger and curry powder. Rich and broad in the mouth, with an almost exotic quality to the flavors of ripe peach and mandarin orange. Really spreads out and stains the palate on the fruity, stony, very long finish, where it leaves behind a trace of sweetness and really vibrates. Like the Wineck- Schlossberg, this lovely grand cru riesling is carrying seven grams of residual sugar. At this point in our tasting, Meyer expressed the opinion that the 2001 vintage produced a more powerful style of wine than did (+?) 2007 Domaine Schoffit Riesling Rangen Clos Saint Theobald Schistes (Schoffit's dry version of Rangen, with 13.6% alcohol and just 4 grams of residual sugar) Pale bright yellow. Sexy, high-pitched aromas of mint, lime, flint and white pepper, with an almost muscat-like suggestion of floral oils. Then broad and inviting, with complex, soil-driven flavors of dusty stone, minerals, pepper and flint. A very intense yet polite style of Rangen, with strong minerality and sneaky persistence.

19 Domaine Schoffit Pinot Gris Rangen Clos Saint Theobald (14% alcohol with 51 g/l r.s.) Pale yellow. Deeply pitched aromas of dried fruits, honey and smoke. A fat, sweet fruit bomb with an intriguing saline element and a slightly phenolic back end. From very clean grapes, notes Schoffit. This is impressive but less complex than the Schistes-and less useful at the table. "The French love this," notes Schoffit Domaine Albert Boxler Riesling Brand (the normale, made in a moelleux style, according to Boxler) Discreet nose hints at underripe pineapple, spices, menthol and honey. Moderately sweet and fat with fruit; a strong white nectarine flavor is lifted by a floral topnote. Probably most impressive today on the very long, slowly mounting finish, which shows terrific sap despite being quite folded in on itself. In spite of its 18 grams of residual sugar, this cuvee will also require at least seven or eight years of cellaring. 92(+?) 2006 Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Mambourg Selection de Grains Nobles Quintessence ($562; 11.6% alcohol, 153 g/l r.s. and 6.1 acidity) Full, rich yellow color. Deeply pitched aromas of yellow fruits, herbs, caraway seed, stone and earth. Fleshy, roasted, heavily botrytized flavors convey a strong shriveled grape character. Distinctly thicker and more concentrated than the "regular" Mambourg SGN, but today I prefer the other wine for its captivating fruit. 92(+?) 2007 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Riesling Brand Knockout nose of dried pineapple, ripe peach, wet stone and nuts. The palate offers enticing sweetness buffered by brisk flavors of crystallized citrus peel and stone. Densely packed, fruit-driven and long and aromatic on the back end. Olivier rates this one a 2 on his "index of perceptible sweetness," which runs from 1 to bone dry to 5 for very sweet (he does not use these indications on the front labels of his VTs and SGNs). In comparison, the Rangen is very much a Domaine Ostertag Riesling Muenchberg Bright, pale green-tinged yellow. Subtle, pure nose offers white peach, lime, spring flowers, crushed stone and a smoky note of reduction. Densely packed but primary and quite restrained today; tastes like crushed grapes. Showing more spices and flowers today than fruit but its

20 superb precision and back-end lift suggest it will be outstanding with several years of cellaring. The wine's 10 grams of residual sugar are mostly hidden by 7.5 grams of acidity. I've got several vintages of this wine in my cellar, and this one will join them. 92(+?) 2007 Domaine Ostertag Gewurztraminer Fronholz Vendanges Tardives Pale, green-tinged color. Reticent, pure aromas of white peach and spring flowers; nothing meaty about this. Then supersweet (100 g/l r.s.) and creamy, but kept fresh by ripe, harmonious acidity. There's a crushed fruit quality that explodes on the very long and smooth aftertaste-as well as an emerging hint of cured meats. Wonderfully pure gewurztraminer for this level of ripeness. Delicious, but still a baby and in need of a couple years of bottle aging Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Herrenweg (15.5% alcohol, 35 g/l r.s. and 3.5 acidity) Full yellow. More discreet aromas of smoked meat, ginger and clove. Then a fat fruit bomb in the mouth, with lovely peppery minerality standing in for acidity to frame and lift the wine. The flavors of lime and acacia honey do not seem overly sweet. This large-scaled wine finishes with gentle tannins and very good length. Not a lot of botrytis here, according to Humbrecht Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Hengst (15.8% alcohol, 26 g/l r.s. and 2.7 acidity) Bright yellow. Reticent, soildriven aromas of smoked meat and spices. Less fruity and perfumed than the Goldert but more chewy and powerful, if not a bit topheavy with alcohol. This structured, backward wine will get increasingly spicy with bottle aging, and calls for patience. Olivier loves this but I find it a bit extreme in the early going. 92(+?) 2007 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Rangen Clos St. Urbain (16.4% alcohol, 22 g/l r.s. and 5.4 acidity) Bright, full yellow. Ineffable aromas and flavors of smoke, rose, flint and peat, with a whiff of burnt grass; more Rangen than gewurztraminer. Huge, powerful and fairly dry, with a shocking concentration of acidity from botrytis and an intense spice character. Finishes with a pronounced element of smoked sausage and a moderately phenolic character. Other producers would have fermented this complicated and idiosyncratic wine to 14% and bottled it as VT. Oliver describes it as "a fire wine." 92(+?)

21 2006 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Riesling Brand Vendanges Tardives ($100; 12% alcohol, 69.5 g/l r.s. and 5.6 acidity) Full yellow-gold. Captivating, refreshing aromas of white fruits, flowers, honey and botanical herbs. Dense and floral, with lovely acid lift and firm underlying minerality. The honeyed note adds depth to this very fresh riesling. Sappy, glyceral, lightly saline finish is distinctly firm-edged but not hard. I like this wine's acid cut and find it easy to drink already Domaine Marc Tempe Pinot Gris Zellenberg Vendange Tardive Medium gold color. Pure, highly aromatic nose combines orange zest, smoke and butter lifted by a floral topnote. The strong botrytis character is clear on the palate, which offers an uncanny combination of volume and vivacity, with penetrating acidity framing and carrying the orange, honey and licorice flavors. Finishes with terrific energy and thrust, with the varietal character turned up to higher volume than the botrytis element Trimbach Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles (half bottle) Gold with an orange tinge. Deeply botrytized aromas of tropical fruits, orange peel, honey and damp earth. Supersweet and honeyed but with terrific penetrating acidity (eight grams) leavening the wine's impression of fat and giving it an almost aggressive character today. Hints of hazelnut and walnut add complexity to this very long, spicy wine. Quite exhilarating in the middle palate and on the aftertaste. 92(+?) 2007 Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvee Saint Catherine ($74) Good pale yellow. Bright, tangy, nobly rotten aromas of orange, honey and spices, with suggestions of exotic fruits. Then rich, broad and sweet, with concentrated tropical fruit, orange and quince flavors framed by harmonious acidity. Finishes long and sappy. This big boy has more of everything than the other two dry examples from this vineyard, beginning with alcohol of 14% Domaine Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg Cuvee Saint Catherine L'Inedit ($) Pale medium yellow. Sexy, pure aromas of yellow fruits and nutmeg plus a whiff of honey. Then almost surprisingly tight and spicy, fairly dry and reticent in the middle, before turning and fruitier on the resounding finish. There's a moderate botrytis element here but the wine will need time to express itself. According to Faller, this bottling is perfect with sweeter crayfish and lobster preparations, or with miso cod