Alsace part III – Stirn, Wach, Faller, Coche-Dury
The next morning, Fred, Ian and I joined Christian and Christophe as judges at the Riesling du Monde wine show. This is an annual event held in Strasbourg. What better place to hold it, being as it is on the Rhine river, with Alsace to the West and Germany to the East. There were some 500 wines entered in the competition. I was with a team of judges looking at wines submitted in the ‘generique’ category, from 2006. There was myself, and the rest of the table evenly split between Germans and Frenchmen. It was remarkable how this seemed to influence rating of the wine: the French loved fatter, richer Rieslings which had seen oxidative handling; the Germans regarded sulfurous wines with residual sugar as having great typicity and character. What they did agree one was that riper, citrusy/limey, very dry wines — namely, New World submissions — were boring, manufactured, undrinkable… but I thought they were amongst the best in the category! I saw considerable evidence at the tasting that nearly all producers struggled in 2006. Many of the wines have a distinct taste of botrytis. On riesling table wines, this can be hard going.
As if judging in French and German was not challenging enough, the France 3 television network decided that I was enough of a curiosity to warrant interviewing me for the six o’clock news. I’m still cringing at the thought of me stumbling around answering the interviewer’s (leading) question of why I thought Riesling was the best grape variety in the World.
For a reason I didn’t quite understand, lunch was at the local Buffalo Grill — an American style Texan grill place which served only miscellaneous manufactured meats swimming in the same anonymous sauce. You can’t eat at three star restaurants every day I guess.
Of course after spending 3 hours amongst hundreds of Rieslings we were just dying to get back to tasting. We dropped off those who were lagging and headed to the pretty town of Andlau to taste chez Domaine Rieffel.
We took a quick drive around the local grand crus, including that of Kastelburg, the only vineyard on schist in Alsace — amazing, since the Mosel is almost entirely planted on it.
Schist at Kastelberg
We headed back to the house of the proprietor to get stuck into the wines. We tasted probably 45 wines so I’ll elaborate on only those which are interesting. The Pinot Noir “Barrique” 2005 was a rich, deeply coloured wine. It had been made with a lot of cold maceration and this extractive process has helped the wine considerably. Beautiful crunchy fruit, like 2005 in Bourgogne, and delightful grape tannins. After this came the Runz Pinot Noir 2004, made intentionally with massive tannin extract as it is the birth year of the proprietor’s first child. The nose showed some unripeness but less than one usually sees on 2004 Burgundy. The palate was extremely dry and tannic. No doubt it will go the distance. At this stage I had the feeling that M. Rieffel really was a Burgundian, especially since I found that his 2006 whites, even though it was a very tough year, missed the mark a little.
After an in depth tasting of the 2007s — are looking good — we finished with a superb Gewurztraminer Zotzenberg grand cru 2005 vendage tardive. The refreshing quality and purity of this wine was just remarkable. Superb.
That evening, as if we hadn’t drunk enough already, we were special guests at Club AOC, the Alsace Oenophile Club. We put on a blind Champagne tasting and one of the members followed this up with a blind premier cru Nuits-Saint-Georges tasting.
The first wine was a Ulysses Collin Extra Brut, which I enjoyed more than I had at the domaine. Following this was the Dehours Bresifer 2002 which I found too big, round and funky. The Selosse Brut, disgorged August 2006 was extremely well received with all but one taster fawning over it. The de Sousa Cuvée des Caudalies Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs seemed too sweet, and just a little tired. Perhaps a had bottle? Next was another well received wine, the Lehay Bouzy NV. I didn’t like the rich, ripe fruit in the wine but others enjoyed it immensely.
Tragically, a Vilmart Coeur de Cuvée 1999 was corked.
Next, we were presented with a number of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The first was a bright, rich but highly extracted Lescure “Les Damodes” 2005. The next was a wine that took a long time to come around: a Dujac Aux Toray 2005. At first it was just all stemmy, prickly tannins and burnt, oaky fruit. After some hours, the wine put on way and the wine was brighter and more enjoyable but I expected more from a wine of a producer of this caliber. Following this was a surprising wine, an Henri Gouges Chaignots 2005. The nose was brooding, closed. The palate was extremely, profoundly tannic. This was like a Barolo. I’m not wine maker but it just seems to me, even by the standards of Gouges, they’ve really gone overboard here: there is just so much extraction here. Don’t touch this if you have it for many many years.
The Henri Gouges Chaînes Carteaux 2005 was even more extracted. This was almost the first time I was seeing hard, offputting tannins in the 2005. Really unpleasant. It also didn’t help that there was some reduction to the nose. Again, leave a very long time. The next wine, an Henri Gouges Les Poirets 2005 was corked. A real shame as there seemed to be less extraction and it would have been my first look at this vineyard. The next wine, from a producer I didn’t record the name of, was deemed corked, although I think it was just a bad wine rather than cork taint affected.
The next wine, a Duband Les Poisets 2000 was an improvement on the previous wines, fine, layed, earthy and typically Nuits in its fruit. The palate was still tannic and dry but long and spicy too. Unfortunately, the next wine, a Potel Vaucrains 1999 also had a problem, this time with oxidation. Inspection of the cork showed a fault in it through which wine had leaked out and, presumably, considerable amounts of air had come in.
There was, unfortunately, no relief. A Bouchard Père et Fils Aux Argillas 1996 was in a terrible state, totally oxidised and the next wine was corked too. At this stage were were considering switching to beer. A Faiveley Les Damodes 1983, in terrible condition, sealed it and we all headed to bed.
We began the next morning (and almost didn’t leave) chez Dirler-Cadé. This house, as it is now, came into being in 2000 with the inter-marriage of two familes, the Dirlers and the Cadés. Production has changed, with the younger generation taking over. Dirler ainé is a great gourmand and regaled us with stories of magnificent meals at the great restaurants of the world. The menus of these fine places stand next to books on oenology and viticulture in the bureau. This was finally a man after my own heart, who would truly look at wine as something fundamentally used to improve the experience of eating.
Perusing great restaurant lists M. Dirler has collected
We tasted some forty wines — the first thirty rapidly and the rest after over a long, luxurious lunch full of enjoyment at the pleasure of other people’s company. The current release wines are of a high quality. The house suffered with others in 2006 but the quality of their vineyard placement meant that the rain did not affect them as much as others. Just a statistic to show how bad it was: in the week harvesting began, 220 mls of rain fell in the vineyards around the town!
The serious wines had been saved for a proper tasting — with food. Madame Dirler had prepared a wonderful, creamy vegetable soup to refresh the palate and then brought forth an unending procession of pâté en croute (baked pate in pastry). With a cheeky grin, Monsieur Dirler presented two obviously aged wines and asked after the vintages. Both were nutty, complex, secondary but very alive. I preferred the first wine, which took on a beautiful aroma of dried rose petal. It was dry, long and delicious. The first was Muscat 1978, the second a Muscat 1987. Both the two oldest Muscats I’ve drunk.
Next, with the pâté, two Pinot Gris: a 1985 and a 1983. These wines had fully resolved and I immediately had a better idea of why the Alsaciens persist with these less popular varieties. Again, both were aged but clean, refreshing, complex and yet elegant, subtle. With pâté, superb.
After about a kilogram of pâté it was time for cheese — perhaps the most enormous cheese place I’ve been presented outside a French restaurant. We were told that not only were we welcome to taste of all 8 or so cheeses, it would be offensive if we didn’t taste them all! With these, we took two superb dessert wines: a Vendage Tardive Gewurztraminer 2000 and a Selection des grains nobles Gewurztraminer 1994. These wines had a beautiful absence of weight about them: subtlety, elegance… rarely seen in Alsace. We finished with a massive sponge cake and fruit salad with a rare wine from the depths of the family cellar: a 2001 Gewurztraminer vin de paille. This wine just tasted rare, the flavour and aroma was indescribable. The texture of the palate was just absolutely unctuous.
Our enjoyment of the wine and company chez Dirler-Cadé was obvious, we’d had to call our next appointment twice to say we’d be late!
We hurriedly sped to Westhalten to taste at Leon Boesch. Boesch is a busy man, being the president of the Alsacien viticultural association. He had to squeeze us in between meetings with various French bureaucrats from INAO, press meetings and the like. Considering this, it is remarkable that he wanted to take us out in the vineyards and show us the terroir. Still, I was happy he did. The vineyard of Zinkkoepflé is close to the steepest I’ve seen. Vineyard workers need to be harnessed with climbing equipment to work. Specially designed tractors with caterpillar treads have to drag them up to the top of the vineyard in a sled!
The considerably slope above Westhalten.
M. Boesch was a very welcoming, friendly guy. A perfect head of a interprofessional association, a born communicator. Unfortunately, I never liked his wines more than the moment before I tasted them. They were of the big, oxidative, alcoholic style that I find so difficult in Alsace.
The next tasting at Albert Boxler at Niedermorschwihr fell through due to one of the usual mix ups that plague tastings in France. The beautiful town of Niedermorschwihr was worth a visit in and of itself though. Perched on the hills above Colmar, it’s much crisper, decidedly more Alsacien than the tourist towns.
We took a look at the Zind Humbrecht Brand grand cru Riesling 2005 and the Zind Humbrecht Windsbhul Riesling 2005 with dinner. These were too worked, over the top, way too alcoholic. Just displeasing. I wish Zind Humbrecht would return to the style of the early 90s.
The next morning commenced with a great find, Domaine Stirn. Alsace needs more people like Fabien Stirn. He immediately impresses you with his intelligence and modest, quiet air. He is the lucky owner of give grand cru plots. He is very Alsacien — even to the extent of professing his love of order, symmetry, and ‘the right way of doing things’ — but started Domaine Stirn only 8 years ago. His family has been making wine since at least 1460, and has records going back that far. Fabien’s father was much older than him though, so while Fabien was still too young to take over the business it was time for his father to slow down. He grew grapes but sold them entirely to the local negociant. Wanting to learn more about wine, he trained in Burgundy at the lycée viticole in Beaune and then in Reims. He went on to work for Champagne grande marques, often on pressing, fermentation and dosage science. He did a stage in North America, making riesling in New York State. Finally, he returned to Alsace and took a position at a prestigeous oenological, analysis and wine production consulting firm. With modesty typical of him, Fabien conceded that the people he was assisting — the greatest names in Alsace — taught him a lot more than him imparted to him. Armed with this information, Fabien reestablished the family domaine and began making wine for himself.
Fabien Stirn
Almost as interesting as Fabien’s wine were the gems he gave us from the family history. In 1541, the family harvested in August. The didn’t do so again until 2003. Then, again, in 2007. This winter has been of unprecedented warmth and if it continues it shall be another early vintage.
Returning to the wines though. We looked at an endless array of wines, all of which were of great quality. Even his most lowly wines which sell for a few euros were good. Of those we tasted, I liked the grand cru Rieslings the most, the 2005 Brand and Schlossberg. Both contained some residual sugar but superb acidity which balanced it perfectly. This was the perfect time to press Fabien on my question of residual sugar. He said that he runs very long, very low temperature fermentation to maximise the sugar needed to produce alcohol. A hot ferment and make a degree of alcohol with as little as 16.5g of sugar per litre. A cool one can use as much as 22g. This is one of the secrets to getting relatively dry wines at alcohol levels which don’t put the wine out of balance. The other problem is the presence of nitrogen in the must. Continuous working of the vineyards in Alsace has reduced the amount of nitrogen in the soil and therefore has affected the uptake of nitrogen by the grapes. A fermenting must needs nitrogen to support the yeasts and the residual sugar in many Alsacien wines, Fabien believes, can be accounted for by the absence of nitrogen.
One of the extraordinary things about the wines of Domaine Stirn was their fabulous texture. Fabien says that much of this is on account of his gentle Champenois pressing method. What ever the explanation, there was a very fine, elegant feel to Fabien’s wines that made them utterly delicious.
Fabien also had the good sense to book ________ for lunch, a restaurant near by. He told us it was a humble restaurant, well priced, with a fair wine list. The wine was superb, out of my dreams. We immediately settled on two superb wines: a Domaine Leflaive Bienvenue Batard Montrachet 2000 and a Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemange 2001. I have long wanted to taste the latter and today was to be the special occasion. The wine opened superbly, showing classic honey, spice and melon character, framed by an elegant but restrained citrusiness. It was also classically Coche-Dury, with that smokey, matchstick (sulfur!) but extremely sensual, indescribable aroma. The palate was magical, with an extremely fine texture that at once coated your mouth but was fresh, not oily. A core of dried fennel and gorgeous minerality persisted in the mouth long after it was swallowed. There was a feeling that this was coming from deep within the wine, once sensed it like a friend long departed and now returned, running toward you at twilight – the slow recognition, the smiling open face, the simple, enjoyable emotion of it all. Truly a singular wine, bottled joy: one giggled and laughed as they drank it. The wine finished dry — slightly tannic even — making it extremely well suited to food and promising further ability to age. For reference, this was bottle number 815.
Next to such an emotional wine, the Leflaive would have been easy to over look, except that every smell, every taste impressed you with the amazing skill with which it was made. It may be that in 25 years the Leflaive is the better wine, the Coche-Dury giving all it has at a younger age. The wine had an amazing structure, crystalline would be my best description. The acid framed the palate remarkably. The wine was subtle, extremely elegant and refined. The best Leflaive I’ve had in fact. In 15 years it shall be stunning, I think.
We finished with a Domaine Stirn Gewurztraminer Selection de grains nobles 2001. The nose of this wine was soft and elegant, very clean and poised. The palate was sumptuous in texture but not cloying. A mouthwatering acidity held the barely detectable 120 grams residual in check. The finish was nearly endless, a wine that just makes you want to laugh at the miracle of its existence.
We continued with our formal program of tasting, chez Bott Geyl. Personally, I found the style here disagreeable, too ripe, oxidative. After drinking the previous wines, perhaps amongst the best white wines in the world, I feel that my judgement was surely clouded here and I wont elaborate further.
We had, however, considerably more success chez Guy Wach, Domaine des Marronniers. Here, one can find great dry Riesling of almost unparalleled quality. The Moenchberg Riesling grand cru 2005 was steely, minerally, with mouthwatering granny smith apple acidity. A wine of extremely high quality. Better still was the Kastelberg Riesling grand cru 2005, grown on the only schist in Alsace. The wine showed a Mosel like acidity and fabulous freshness. This will easily go 20 years and those lucky enough to have bottles will be richly rewarded over the years by its superb fruit and structure.
Better still and beginning to show evidence of bottle age was the superb Kastelberg grand cru 2004, showing a little honey and a touch of dried apple. This is just on the cusp of it’s drinking life but will be almost without peer once developed, in say 15 years. The Kastelberg vieilles vignes Riesling 2005 was more primary and ungiving at the moment but should be fabulous too.
We tried the rest of the range — well made wines but one can see that Gewurztraminer and the other grapes of Alsace are just not destined for greatness, in the way that Riesling is. The dessert wines were well made but I think that in the hands of Guy Wach, it is the dry Rieslings which really excel.
At Barr, we settled on a few bottles for dinner but they were both in sad states and not worth reporting on, except to say that Domaine Robert Groffier did have itself sorted out in 1993, as far as I can tell. It should be enough to say that two half bottles remained by the end of the meal.
The next morning began at Kaysersberg, tasting at the very old worldly château of the renowned Faller women: Colette, Catherine and Laurence. One daughter makes the wine, the other markets it and their heavily done up, agile, proud mother of 82 (going on 40) runs front of house, accepting importers and the like. The Faller wines are legendary, not just for their quality but also their prices. The prices are jaw droppingly high: their most lowly Riesling landing in Australia at around $120/bottle, their most rare Selection de grains nobles commanding $1200 (per half bottle)!
82 year old Madame Faller in action
Needless to say, we were very keen to see what all the fuss was about. We commenced with the Schlossberg Riesling grand cru “St Catherine” 2006 which immediately presented fine, complex fruit showing none of the problems of 2006 seen elsewhere. It was musky, minerally with a salty sea spray element that was beguiling. The green apple like acidity cleansed the palate after each sip. A superb wine for the year.
The Schlossberg Riesling grand cru “L’Inédit” 2004 was similarly impressive with a minerally nose of passion fruit and rose petal. This multilayered wine had amazing acidity that its residual sugar. The 60 year old vines contributed, it seems, to the amazing complexity this wine had. Despite this, I drank a bottle at week later and found the residual sugar too much for such a wine to be suitable for anything but foie gras, pâté or dessert. Likely, it is best by itself. The rest of the range was interesting and well made, but as elsewhere the lesser grape varieties suffered in comparison to the Riesling and one was left wondering what they really gave.
As this was our last formal tasting in Alsace, it was time to head back to the restaurant of the day before for some more Coche-Dury and perhaps something else too. We immediately asked for the Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne 2001, along with a Beaucastel Hommage à Jacques Perrin 1995, to be brought up and decanted.
The Coche-Dury, this bottle being number 813 (814 disappearing over night, after our rave review to the chef), was identifiably the same wine but slightly different, more sulfurous. We gave it a good shake in the decanter and after this friend/foe departed we found a wine very similar to the t day, perhaps even a little better. We all took a seafood special, scallops in a saffron and cream sauce. The iodic/minerally character of the saffron married with the mineral component of the wine, the cream with the heavy aroma of honey, the other spices with the vein of vanilla on the palate. Simply, it was the perfect match of food and wine. If I could not drink or eat again after that point, I could at least say that I had experience perhaps the pinnacle of pleasure the two have to offer.
The Beaucastel Hommage à Jacques Perrin 1995 was exactly what it should have been, a rich, profoundly concentrated, extracted wine that did all it was meant to. The nose was full of ink, soy, spice, blood, vanilla, oak, a touch of brett, dried blackberry. The palate was hugely tannic, mouth coating. It was difficult to taste anything on the table after taking a sip. It was my first bottle of this cuvée and almost certainly my last. It is not a wine style that gives me pleasure but I can see how others enjoy it. Truly, twenty wines in one.
We finished with a vendage tardive from Fabien of singular purity. He really knows how to make wine.
Full of wine, tired but happy, we’d survived a massive onslaught of Alsacien wine and found some amazing wines from there and regions nearby. It was time for Fred, Gen and I to head for the Jura and send our friends off to Italy.
