Grand Cru Rieslings from Alsace

It was my great pleasure this past Thursday night to attend a Grand Cru Alsace Riesling tasting led by Lisa Airey, CWE and sponsored by the French Wine Society. Ms. Airey began the event with an thorough educational overview of Alsace and the 51 recognized Grand Cru vineyards of the region while most of us indulged in a nice selection of fine French cheeses. Even though some of these INAO-delimited vineyards sites are quite large (a few in excess of 100 acres), the total of all wines produced from the grapes grown there constitute only approximately 5% of the region's entire annual output. Because of this, wines from these recognized vineyards come at a somewhat higher but hardly astronomical pricetag. The prices for the dry wines from this tasting range from ~$25 - $75 per bottle, with the mast majority coming in at under $50.

Prior to this even and to the best of my recollection, I had only ever tasted one Grand Cru Alsatian Riesling in my life and that was several years ago. As such, I definitely walked in the door a complete neophyte on the subject. Furthermore, I fretted in advance that my still-developing palate would not be able to accurately discern the nuance that separate the 10 dry Rieslings that would be poured at the tasting.

As it happens, I needn't have worried at all. The degree of variance among these 10 wines from 8 different vineyards from 5 different vintages was truly immense and disccerning the unique characteristics of each wine was no trouble at all. The chore turned out to be deciding which of the wines I liked the most as nary a bad wine was poured.

Working north to south through the region, here is the list of Grand Cru Rieslings that were poured, tasted and discussed in flights of two:

2004 Marc Kreydenweiss Riesling Wiebelsberg
2004 Marc Kreydenweiss Riesling Kastelberg
2006 Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg
2005 Otter Organic Riesling Schlossberg
2004 Josmeyer Riesling Brand
2003 Ehrhart Riesling Hengst
2005 Schlumberger Riesling Saering
2002 Lucien Albrecht Riesling Pfingstberg
2005 Lucien Albrecht Riesling Pfingstberg
2004 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain

As Ms. Airey pointed out, these are wines that were intended to age for 10 years or more so our drinking them so young was a little on order with mass infanticide. However, the differences in character between a hot vintage like 2005 and the other vintages was telling, as were the stylistic differences between producers and geographic and geologic differences between vineyards (although, as one would expect, discerning which factor was most at play proved to be difficult). The older wines, specifically the '02 Albrecht and the '03 Ehrhart, were both already showing the expected “petrol” notes that come with age (which register on my senses as a combination of diesel fuel and freshly-cut pine boards), most especially the Ehrhart.

The '05 Schlumberger struck me as the most Germanic of the wines, not straying far from what I normally associate with Mosel character, while the '05 Albrecht brought the most rich tropical fruit. Contrast that with the '04 Zind-Humbrecht, which was heavy on musky honey, jasmine and herbs and presented very distinct barnyard notes.

The '02 Albrecht was definitely my favorite of the night. It is drinking wonderfully now, appearing to be in the midst of its transition phase between youthful fruit and elderly petrol with spice and fresh tartness. I was already a big fan of this winemaker's Cremant d'Alsace before I walked in the door and his wines continue to rise in my estimation.

To finish off the event, we were poured the 2004 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand Vendanges Tardives, with its decadent sweetness and super fig bomb nose.