A Veritable Revolution in Sancerre: Stéphane Riffault is Creating Wines of Texture, That are Singular, and True to Themselves. (Seven-Bottle Pack $299: Two Red and Five White)
A communion with the soil is the most important relationship a winemaker will ever forge, and nowhere is this demonstrated more reliably than in Sancerre, where three distinct soil types produce a split-personality of wine characteristics. This may be something of well-kept secret, as the name ‘Sancerre’—even to experienced wine drinkers—often exists as a single, all-encompassing concept limited to crisp, bone-dry, citrus-scented Sauvignon Blancs.
Sancerre, as it happens, is a wealth of subtleties from commune to commune, vineyard to vineyard, lieu-dit to lieu-dit, just as it is in Burgundy.
In this week’s exploration, we’ll take a look at the portfolio of one of Sancerre’s most innovative young winemakers, Stéphane Riffault, owner of Domaine Claude Riffault, who works 33 different parcels and eight different lieux-dits spread across four villages. Riffault’s cross-section of Sancerrois splendor is a nice overview of the triumvirate of soils as well Stéphane’s mastery of balancing minerality and wood—a feat rarely duplicated anywhere else in the appellation.
Sancerre: Sauvignon Blanc is Only Part of The Story
Rumors that Sancerre is synonymous with Sauvignon Blanc have been greatly exaggerated. That said, no credible wine scholar will deny that the stars aligning between Sancerre’s terroir and the blonde scioness of the Val de Loire is a remarkable gift to us all. Just as the Loire River runs through the heart of France, Sancerre pierces the heart of summertime and Sauvignon Blanc grown among the brush, gravel and layers of Cretaceous soils provides an unadorned synthesis of the scents we associate with the easy season: Cut grass, Meyer lemon, tart hedgerow berries and petrichor—the incomparable aroma of raindrops on stone.
80% of the grapes grown in Sancerre are Sauvignon Blanc, so it is no wonder that this varietal dominates the market, especially in the United States. But nearly 20% is Pinot Noir, and it’s a fact that prior to phylloxera, Sancerre was best known for its red wines. Not only that, but in that not-so-distant past, the whites were rarely made from Sauvignon Blanc, but from Chasselas, which is still grown in small pockets.
When the diabolical little phylloxera louse decimated the vineyard of Sancerre (along with much of Europe) they were replanted with Sauvignon Blanc, which was more responsive to the requisite remedy—American root stock.
One thing did not change: The almost clichéd emphasis Sancerre places on purity. This is a result of two factors: First, the region is relatively far north, so a hallmark of nearly all Sancerre—red, white or pink—is its bright acidity—preserved in the grapes by cool nights and temperate days. The pH of a wine determines its mouthfeel, and the higher the acidity, the more sizzling is the sensation of freshness and clarity on the palate, often described as ‘purity.’
Of equal importance, very little oak is used in the maturation process of wines from Sancerre, and the flavors associated with oak—butter, clove, vanilla and caramel—however desirable in Burgundy—tend to mask some of the fruit-driven notes. It’s one of the reasons that oak-free Chablis is considered the purest incarnation of Chardonnay, and likewise, the neutral barrel or stainless steel/cement aging of Sancerre’s Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and occasionally Gamay offers the best results for preserving the natural flavors inherent in the juice.
Soil Matters: Sancerrois Trilogy
Every cliché-driven wine writer on the planet will tell you that in order to make superb wine you must begin with superb grapes, and every conscientious winemaker on earth will tell you that to grow those grapes you need superb soil. And few appellations the size of Sancerre (roughly 7000 acres) are more narrowly defined by three unique variations on that theme, and this is a point of pride for Sancerre’s winegrowers.
First, are the silex soils, which extend southward from Saint-Satur to Thauvenay. Silex soils contain flint (‘silex’ is what the British call this sedimentary form of quartz); such soils form over millennia as limestone erodes to dust and much harder stones are left in its wake. Flint leaves an interesting imprint on Sauvignon Blanc; the wines are elegant and finely-etched with distinctive citrus and herbal notes, but most prominent is the spark/smoke character that the French call ‘pierre à fusil’—literally, gunflint. The smoky minerality that is so prized in tasting notes is far more evident in silex soils than those chalkier wines grown in limestone—silex wines attain a nearly indefinable quality of precision, like the edge of an arrowhead.
Next is the Kimmeridgian marl found on Sancerre’s westernmost hills (as well as in Chablis Grand Crus and many great Champagne terroirs). It is a mixture of limestone and clay that formed eons ago as the final resting place of the famous comma-shaped oyster, Exogyra virgula. Their fossilized shells (quite visible in many stones from the region) left the soils rich in calcium carbonate. Amazingly, wines from this prehistoric graveyard produce wines in which the now-evaporated sea—in the form of a briny undertow, or saltiness—can clearly be tasted. Kimmeridgian marl is known locally as ‘terres blanches’ because the chalky clay turns white in dry periods.
Sancerre’s Oxfordian limestone soils are perhaps less heralded but they are arguably more important because they produce the bulk of the ‘entry-level’ early-drinking Sancerres that—in the public perception—may better typify the region. That is not to say that, in the right hands, they cannot produce wines of great subtlety, as proven by Stéphane Riffault, whose Sury-en-Vaux estate sits (in part) on a ribbon of Oxfordian. These are stone-filled soils, but unlike silex soils, there’s little flint and unlike Kimmeridgian, there is little clay. Instead, the rocky subsurface is filled with two distinct types of stone, caillottes, which are sizable pebbles and Griottes, which are much smaller. Oxfordian limestone tends to run north-south from Sainte-Gemme down through Bué and below.
Domaine Claude Riffault
Le Métronome*
*From ‘Our 25 Domaines of the Year,’ Guides des Vins 2020, Bettane+Desseauve:
“When you think of Sancerre, you absolutely have to mention Stéphane Riffault. Measure, attention and reflection forge high-flying and stylish cuvées; each reflecting the personality of its terroir. Everything here exudes excellence.”
When Stéphane Riffault took over Domaine Claude Riffault from his father Claude, he brought with him a tool kit earned in a number of contrasting appellations, having studied and trained with Olivier Leflaive in Burgundy and at Château Angélus in Bordeaux. This broader view informed the core, hands-on education he received from his father at the domain. Among the rather ‘un-Sancerre-like’ methods he brought to the estate was hand-harvesting and extensive sorting before the crush; Stéphane’s wife Benedicte leads the harvest team while Stéphane manages the sorting and press during harvest.
Meanwhile, among the conclusions at which he arrived on his own is that sustainability is key to the future. As such, all 33 of his vineyard acres are organic (Ecocert, 2016) and biodynamic (Biodyvin, 2021).
Stéphane Riffault, Domaine Claude Riffault
All good winemakers seem to be equal parts dirt-farmer and metaphysical philosopher, and Stéphane is no exception: “Being a winegrower and winemaker demands commitment, risk and continual self-questioning,” he maintains. “You have to know how to adapt in order to stay dynamic. Improvement requires perpetual movement, and what drives me is the creation of wines of texture; wines that are singular and true to themselves.”
Although most of the Riffault’s holdings are planted on the soft limestone soil called ‘terres blanches’, he farms a handful of parcels on caillottes and silex; thus, he has developed a keen understanding of the qualities that each unique terroir brings to an individual wine. He employs oak moderately to add length to his already-precise, site-expressive and highly delineated bottlings.
All his parcels are vinified separately, and (except for the rosé), all are bottled unfiltered.
White Sancerre: Lieux-dits Tell Their Story
As someone trained in Burgundy (and whose brother Benoît is the winemaker at Domaine Etienne Sauzet in Puligny-Montrachet), you might expect Stéphane Riffault to have a particular affinity for lieux-dits—those unique parcels of vineyards so singular in expression that they have their own names. This is absolutely the case, and there is more: The Crus of Burgundy may be well-mapped and understood, but far less so are the vineyards and lieux-dits of Sancerre. Riffault considers them among France’s finest terroirs, able to produce great white wines not of stature and complexity, but of individual identity. As such, he is making it his mission to champion eight parcels among the 33 plots he currently works as part of an exacting showcase stratospheric Sancerres seen from a near-microscopic perspective.
Domaine Claude Riffault, 2022 Sancerre ‘Les Denisottes’ Blanc ($49)
Les Denisottes is a three-acre plot located near Riffault’s Sury-en-Vaux estate and is composed of three individual southeast-facing plots at nearly a thousand feet in altitude. The vines (between 40 and 50 years old) are rooted in deep Kimmeridgian limestone. The juice fermented spontaneously and was aged on lees for 14 months in multi-layer wooden barrels with sporadic bâtonnage and no malolactic fermentation, producing a wine loaded with citrus zest, green apple tartness and a distinct flinty minerality.
Domaine Claude Riffault, 2022 Sancerre ‘Les Chailloux’ Blanc ($49)
Les Chailloux is a unique site in the village of Sury-en-Vaux. While silex soils are common in the neighboring Pouilly-Fumé and the eastern edge of Sancerre, it is fairly scarce in the northwestern part of Sancerre. Stéphane Riffault farms about three acres of vines in this lieu-dit, which produces concentrated and opulent wine, yet racy and intensely saline and capable of aging gracefully for many years.
Domaine Claude Riffault, 2022 Sancerre ‘Les Chasseignes’ Blanc ($44)
Les Chasseignes is an east/southeast facing lieu-dit that sits at nearly 900 feet in altitude. Planted on gravelly limestone soils, the wine opens with a greenish, refreshing bouquet and gains considerably in complexity upon aeration, becoming round and elegant and finishing with savory notes.
Domaine Claude Riffault, 2022 Sancerre ‘Les Boucauds’ Blanc ($40)
From a top parcel in Sury-en-Vaux; the 2022 Boucauds is a blend of both Burgundy barrels (several from Etienne Sauzet in Puligny-Montrachet) and larger oak formats. Because of the deep clay and limestone soils, Les Boucauds always has great mouthfeel and depth, as opposed to Stéphane’s silex and caillottes parcels which are more linear and austere in their youth. Sourced from several Les Boucauds plots, this cuvée employs close to half of all the Sauvignon Blanc planted on the estate.
Domaine Claude Riffault ‘Mosaïque Calcaire’, 2022 Sancerre Blanc ($39)
In 2018 Stéphane Riffault made the decision to release a village-level Sancerre after additional plantings on limestone terroirs that he has undertaken over the last decade. It also includes some fruit from Les Boucauds and Les Chasseignes along with eighteen other parcels. Like all good Sancerre, this wine is supple and nearly succulent, filled with tropical notes besides the melon and pear foundation. It is rich, but remains light on its feet behind gentle acidity.
Red Sancerre: Taking Cues from Burgundy
To look for a silver lining amid the global catastrophe of climate change is nearly sacrilegious—unless you are a fan of red wine from Sancerre. Despite its strong history in the appellation, red wine grapes (Pinot Noir, almost exclusively) once struggled to ripen, and when they did, did so erratically. In all but exceptional vintages, Sancerre reds had a reputation for being thin and somewhat weedy, and even the alchemy of elite producers like Domaine Claude Riffault tended to produce wines with obvious bell pepper notes—a telltale signature of under-ripe red grapes, and an issue that oak does not fix.
In 2014, a warming climate began to put some of these nagging problems in the rearview mirror. The growing season was not necessarily longer, but the diurnal temperature shifts—vital for maintaining a useable balance between sugars and acids—allowed Pinot Noir to ripen more completely and more evenly. The wisest producers began to rely on a Burgundian approach; vinifying individual parcels by terroir, relying on blends that may vary from year to year, and perhaps most importantly, rethinking the use of oak barrels, allowing them to accent rather than submerge the fruit.
And every year, the fruit is proving itself reliably worthy, showing the rich black cherry and cola notes lifted by acidity that we have come to expect in top Burgundies.
All this does not meliorate the downside of climate change, but if life hands you lemons, might as well become better acquainted with Sancerre’s now world-class Pinot Noirs.
Domaine Claude Riffault, 2019 Sancerre ‘La Noue’ Rouge ($38)
La Noue is a six-acre plot of Pinot Noir on planted on Kimmeridge limestone, and here, Riffault’s Burgundian-trained touch is evident. The enticing tea like, garrigue-infused fragrance is followed by raspberry, blueberry and violet notes enrobed in silky tannins. As with all wines from Domaine Claude Riffault, the vines are cultivated according to organic and biodynamic guidelines. Manual harvesting is followed by 18 months of ageing. Total production amounts to 10,630 bottles.
Domaine Claude Riffault ‘M.T. Mise Tardive’, 2019 Sancerre ‘La Noue’ Rouge ($48)
‘Mise Tardive’ refers to a process in which the unbottled wine undergoes a longer élevage with extended lees aging. Divided into seven plots and ranging in age from 10 to 60 years old, Noue is the source for both Noue Rosé and Rouge. Stéphane’s Rouge shows his Burgundian-trained touch with this variety, one that preserves the light and delicate style of Pinot from Sancerre, but layered with a depth of red fruit and black tea flavors.
RECENT ARRIVAL
Chavignol’s Damned Mountain: The Geography of Sancerre Writ Large
Mohammed was a teetotaler, but if he’d been a Sancerre lover and he had to go to the mountain, it would have been Chavignol. With apologies to Francis Bacon, who came up with the proverb about Mohammed and mountains in 1625, Chavignol looms above Sancerre as a Kimmeridgian limestone and marl billboard for the heights that this wine can reach.
It’s notable that in Sancerre (unlike the Médoc and Burgundy), the appellation system has no officially designated Premier Cru or Grand cru vineyards, based in part on a local reluctance to emphasize individual hamlets or specific lieux-dits sites that might divert consumers from the easily identifiable Sancerre brand. Chavignol remains an exception to prove the rule: Inhabitants of this eponymous village have long marketed wine under the name ‘Chavignol,’ and still mention it on the labels of their Appellation Contrôlée Sancerre wines. This is not simply the obligatory inclusion of their address, but a subtitle which takes on such dimensions that the name of Sancerre is eclipsed.
Located just a few minutes’ drive to the west of Sancerre, Chavignol is home to two of the appellation’s most famed lieux-dits, Les Monts Damnés and Le Cul de Beaujeu, which are together responsible for some of the region’s most sought-after wines.
Domaine Thomas-Labaille
Claude Thomas continued to work old vines in Monts Damnés—Sancerre’s greatest vineyard site—until well into his seventies, just as he maintained his standards in the cellar with élevage in old foudres and unfiltered bottlings. He clung to traditions in the hope that his daughter and son-in-law would ultimately take the reins.
This finally happened when Jean-Paul Labaille quit his civil servant job and became a full-time vigneron—although for the previous ten vintages, he had taken his vacation during the harvest to be the assistant winemaker to Claude Thomas. Few changes have happened under the new guard, and the 27 acres of vineyards remain among the best in Chavignol, with a large proportion of old vines. The oldest barrels have been re-placed by newer, mostly second-hand barrels that are 2 to 3 years old. The goal at Thomas-Labaille has always been to avoid any oaky character, but to let the wine breathe as it evolves slowly on its lees.
Jean-Paul Labaille, Domaine Thomas-Labaille
Work in the vineyards still follows Claude Thomas’ time-honored techniques, though through necessity as much as through respect: Monts Damnés is too steep a slope to ever consider machine harvesting—now the norm in the appellation—but the site is so spectacular that it’s worth the trouble. Many of the vines are over 80 years old; a genuine rarity in Sancerre. Given such spectacular raw material it’s no wonder that the resulting wine remains sensational: Rich, fat, round, with layered aromas, and marathon finishes. These are not a typical bistro Sancerres, but graceful wines meant for aging.
Domaine Thomas-Labaille, 2022 Sancerre – Chavignol ‘Les Monts Damnés’ ($46)
100% Sauvignon Blanc fermented on native yeasts in fiberglass and cement, then aged on lees in stainless steel tanks (with a small proportion of old barrels in some vintages) for four to six months and bottled without filtration. The nose shows a bit of citrus and nectarine with hints of guava; the palate is weighted and luscious, and the wine finishes with a delineation and minerality reminiscent of a top Chablis, a hallmark quality of Monts Damnés.
Domaine Thomas-Labaille ‘Cuvée L’Authentique’, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($30)
Jean-Paul also makes a younger, fresher wine that is released earlier than Monts Damnés and is meant for immediate consumption. Formerly bottled as straight ‘Sancerre,’ for the past few vintages, it has been labeled as ‘Cuvée l’Authentique.’ This wine is sourced from all the estates’ vineyards, and shows high-toned citrus fresh grasses and forest floor but is dominated by its stoniness.
Vintage Journal in Centre-Loire
The 2022 Vintage
Directly from the journal of Jean-Paul Labaille:
“Following the terrible frost that impacted our crop in 2021, it almost feels like 2022 was blessed from above. While it’s true that drought and hail impacted many vineyards this year and that the heavy rainfalls in June made it very challenging to work the soils, in the end the vines were balanced and we did not suffer the same amount of hydric stress felt by so many other regions. We even had some light rain in August and at the very beginning of harvest, giving us grapes of great quantity and quality. We began on September 5th, interrupted once on the 7th by a hail storm that touched the Northwest of the appellation. In Chavignol there were zero impacts. Qualitatively, we are in for a good vintage. The fermentations have been going well, with pH levels between 3.2 and 3.3, permitting us to keep a good amount of freshness. The alcohol will end up between 12.5 and 13.5, maybe as high at 13.7 on the Monts-Damnés. 2022 really reminds me of 2018, which is very promising!”
The 2020 Vintage
Temperatures in Central Loire began to warm up in the second half of February, setting the stage for the season and giving the vines an early start. In mid-March to mid-April cold nights caused some vignerons to us mobile anti-freeze towers and light braziers to warm the vines, and in the end, there was very little frost damage. Flowering went very well and thanks to dry weather there was virtually no mildew. But this dryness became a concern during the summer and blocked the ripening process in mid-August. Rain finally arrived at the end of August which allowed the vines to start producing again, reducing the gap time between phenolic and physiological maturities. The harvest took place in sunny dry weather and the vintage achieved both quantity and quality.
The 2019 & 2018 Vintages: The Twin Years
The back-to-back vintages 2018 and 2019 represent something of a climactic miracle. Even as a stand-alone, 2018 is considered to be one of the most exceptional vintages seen in the region for half a century. Taken together with a spectacular 2019, they are twin towers of triumph.
2018 began with fantastic spring that allowed for successful flowering and fruit set without any of the usual problems that normally occur with rain, hail or frost, and a hot summer developed the ripe semi-tropical flavors associated with the best Sauvignon Blanc. 2019 was a bit cooler, but produced grapes where the coveted acids that reign in aggressive fruit notes.
Tapping the source directly, Vacheron comments, “2018 and 2019 are very similar in the way they are constructed, even if the alcohol is slightly higher in 2018. The two vintages tend to show that it is possible to make wines that have good freshness despite low acidities because the minerality superseded the acidity. 2018 is without a doubt a vintage that will mark people’s memories, and will remain a reference in Sancerre. It’s the kind of vintage that helps grow a heightened generation of wine makers within their appellations.”
Notebook …
Wine Siblings: Sancerre and Chablis
Brothers from another mother or sisters from another mister; either way, the land beneath Sancerre and Chablis springs from the same prehistory. Classified in the middle of the 18th century by French geologist Alcide d’Obigny while he was working near the English town of Kimmeridge, he identified a unique layer of dark marl and called it ‘Kimmeridgian.’
Still, as in siblings, there are distinct differences in the DNA of English Kimmeridgian and French Kimmeridgian. The French layer is a relatively uniform chalky marl with thin limestone containing rich layers of seashells. This is because strata formed from the post Jurassic period continued to be deposited in the shallow sea areas which once covered part of France. The way these layers interact is key to the reason that French Kimmeridgian soils produce some of the world’s most heralded wine. The marly soil provides good structure, ideal water-retention and is easy to cultivate while hard limestone Portlandian contains numerous fossil fragments and, having been repeatedly shattered by frost, offers good aeration and ideal drainage along gentle slopes.
Chablis is a significant part of the Kimmeridgian chain; mid-slope vineyards in Chablis match almost perfectly to the Kimmeridgian outcrop, with the soft, carbonate-rich rock being covered by Portlandian limestone and supported by other limestone deposits. Sancerre, meanwhile, sits on top a fault ridge; the eastern side has a layer of Cretaceous soils while the west side is covered with brush and gravel slopes. Further west the best vineyards sit on the classic Portlandian-Kimmeridgian soil combination, producing a classic example of ‘terroir’.
- - -
Posted on 2024.07.20 in Sancerre, Rosé de Loire, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire | Read more...
The French Climate Divide: 2023 Rosés Show The Difference Between Warm-Climate (Mediterranean) and Cool-Climate (Oceanic) Fruit. Ten Types, Spanning the Two, by Seventeen Producers. A Dozen Rosés $349 – A Holiday Sampler.
Two things that France and the United States share: A red, white and blue flag and a passion for rosé. So, while we’re celebrating both on the Fourth of July, we’ll take the opportunity to offer a springboard to this style via through a series of rosés that span France from north to south.
Tastes in wine run hot and cold and so do the climates that produce them. Nearly every commercial vine on earth is grown between 30° – 50° latitude (both north and south), but that range offers an almost endless array of rainfall patterns, cloud covers and wind configurations and such a wide spectrum of environments and that generalization seems pointless. And yet, anyone qualified to blind taste with authority should be able to tell you very quickly whether the wine comes from cool or warm region simply by gauging the character of the fruit.
In cool climates, where budding occurs late and frosts arrive early, even grapes harvested at optimal ripeness tend to produce lighter, more acidic wines with flavor profiles that lean toward savory herbs and acidic fruits like cranberries and tart cherries. In fact, you’ll find these types of descriptors used for wines made from any number of varieties that have adapted to cooler climates. In contrast, warm weather and extended growing seasons in the world’s southerly vineyards results in jammier, richer wines with less acidity and darker fruit flavors (blackberry and plum), often underscored with exotic aromatics like coffee and chocolate.
Nowhere is this climate divide more obvious than in France, and no style of wine demonstrates it better than French rosé, a wine with many guises. A versatile food wine and a cherished part of French viticulture, crisp, cheerful rosé is produced both in France’s frosty north and sultry south with characteristically different, yet equally spectacular results.
Mediterranean Climate
Provence and Southern Rhône Valley Rosé
With the same passion as its red and white cousins, rosé raises the flag of diversity and complexity in an infinite combination of terroir, grape variety and vintage variation. If you still consider it a pale, pink, lightly alcoholic swimming-pool tipple, have we got a surprise for you!
Hugging the Mediterranean between Spain and Italy and blessed with consistently fine growing condition, Southern France produces wines ideally suited for this summery milieu. Despite its location France, the vineyards are still far north of almost all of Spain and Italy’s, so the days are long during the growing season, allowing grapes to fully ripen. The Gulf Stream and Mediterranean Sea keep it balmy while steady winds banish humidity that can cause disease and mildew.
As such, the reds are particularly robust, and these grapes, of course, are the foundation of the pinks.
The 2023 Vintage
Drought was the name of the 2023 game, and the Mediterranean coast experienced it badly, sometimes halving harvest volumes. Although vines can survive scorching heat, they tend to produce less juicy and more acidic grapes. But every region has its variations. The vines in Roussillon, for example, suffered severe water stress throughout the season whereas those in Languedoc experienced an ‘episode cévenol’—a storm specific to the south of France—in September. Despite these extreme conditions, the vines’ tough, deep roots were able to draw on unexpected resources to ensure that the grapes continued to grow and the overall harvest, while smaller than normal, looks promising.
Côtes-de-Provence
The massive Côtes-de-Provence sprawls over 50,000 acres and incorporates a patchwork of terroirs, each with its own geological and climatic personality. The northwest portion is built from alternating sub-alpine hills and erosion-sculpted limestone ridges while to the east, and facing the sea, are the volcanic Maures and Tanneron mountains. The majority of Provençal vineyards are turned over to rosé production, which it has been making since 600 B.C. when the Ancient Greeks founded Marseille.
Château Les Mesclances
Côtes-de-Provence
In the Provençal dialect, ‘Mesclances’ refers to the confluence of rivers, and the estate, a mere two miles from the sea in the commune of La Crau, is situated between two streams, the Réal Martin and Gapeau, which originate in the limestone massif of the Sainte Baume. The property consists of 75 contiguous acres and is a picturesque ideal of Mediterranean culture and pretty rolling topography. And certainly, this geography determines appellation status: Wines from the estate’s plain are IGP Méditerranée while the foot of the slope yields AOP Côtes de Provence, and the steeper incline of the hill carries the rare Appellation Côtes de Provence ‘La Londe’. Only 20 estates count La Londe in their holdings.
Mesclances is owned by Arnaud de Villeneuve Bargemon, whose family has run the domain since the French revolution. In April 2018, Alexandre Le Corguillé joined the team as estate manager, and as is to be expected, most of the vineyard production is dedicated to rosé.
1 Château Les Mesclances ‘Faustine’, 2023 Côtes-de-Provence ‘La Londe’ Rosé ($36)
La Londe is a tiny sub-appellation of the Côtes-de-Provence spread between the communes of Hyères and La Londe-les Maures itself, as well as some specific areas of Bormes-les-Mimosas and La Crau. 75% of the production is rosé made from Cinsault and Grenache, bolstered by up to 20% of various red and white varieties, including Tibouren, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Vermentino, known locally as Rolle.
Mesclances’ La Lond is a serious, age-worthy rosé that blends 90% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre from the estate’s blue-schist soils, fermented spontaneously, with the Grenache given 15 hours of maceration and the Mourvèdre derived from the saignée method.
Bandol
Conventional wisdom has taught us that wine grapes fare best in places where nothing else will grow; rocky, water-starved soil on precipitous hillsides make vine roots work harder, ramifying and branching off in a search of nutrients and, in consequence, producing small grapes loaded with character. Cue Bandol, the sea-and-sun-kissed region along the French Riviera, which is not only good country for grapes, it’s good country for the soul. Made up of eight wine-loving communes surrounding a cozy fishing village, Bandol breaks the Provençal mold by producing red wines that not only outstrip the region’s legendary rosé, but make up the majority of the appellation’s output. In part that’s due to the ability of Bandol vignerons to push Mourvèdre—generally treated as a blending grape in the Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape —to superlative new heights.
Domaine La Bastide Blanche
Bandol
Michel and Louis Bronzo purchased Bastide Blanche in the ‘70s in the belief that the terroir could produce a wine to rival those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. With that in mind, the brothers planted Carignane, Cinsault, Clairette, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah. Vintage 1993 proved to be their breakaway year, putting both Bandol and themselves on the wine map.
The estate is located in the foothills of Sainte-Baume Mountain, five miles from the Mediterranean Sea on land that is primarily limestone scree.
2 Domaine La Bastide Blanche, 2023 Bandol Rosé ($31)
Predominantly Mourvèdre shored up with Grenache and Cinsault, this cuvée is full-bodied from direct-press and shows orange citrus, watermelon, herbed cherry and some lengthy minerality.
Cassis
The entire vineyard area of Cassis is under five hundred acres, but most of the properties overlook the sea, which moderates the heat and creates an ideal climate for vine growing; the commune is known primarily for its herb-scented white wines, principally from Clairette and Marsanne (about 30% of Cassis production is rosé) and despite its name, it does not produce Crème de Cassis.
Domaine Bagnol
Cassis Rosé
Sitting just beneath the imposing limestone outcropping of Cap Canaille 700 feet from the shores of the Mediterranean, Domaine du Bagnol is the beneficiary of the cooling winds from the north and northwest and as well as the gentle sea breezes that waft ashore. Cassis native Jean-Louis Genovesi and his son Sébastien run the 18-acre estate.
3 Domaine Bagnol, 2023 Cassis Rosé ($37)
45% Grenache, 35% Cinsault and 20% Mourvèdre. A taut, acidic, sea-dominated rosé from a handful of parcels totaling 17 acres planted in clay and limestone on a gentle north-northwest-facing slope. It shows the characteristic salinity of a coastal vineyard with supple nectarine and melon notes.
Côtes-du-Rhône
Côtes-du-Rhône is one of the largest single appellation regions in the world, covering millions of acres and producing millions of bottles of wine of varying degrees of quality. In Southern Rhône, it encompasses the majority of vineyards and includes hallowed names like Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
The latter wines prefer to use their individual, highly specific ‘Cru’ names, but the truth is, many generic Côtes du Rhônes may come from plots just outside official ‘Villages’ boundaries—some only across the road or a few vine rows away from top vineyards—and among them, you can find wines with nearly the same level of richness at a fraction of the cost.
Domaine Charvin
Côtes-du-Rhône Rosé
Established in 1851, Domaine Charvin is one of the region’s perennial superstars. Laurent is the sixth-generation Charvin to run the domain, and the first to commercially market a proprietary bottling. He tends vines in the northwest end of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, primarily in Cabrières, Maucoil and Mont Redon, farming organically and engaging in old-school vinification, without de-stemming and fermenting in concrete tanks for 21 months before bottling without filtration.
4 Domaine Charvin, 2023 Côtes-du-Rhône Rosé ($24)
45% Grenache, 45% Cinsault, 10% Mourvèdre showing up-front notes of candied cherries, strawberry, lavender and Provençal herbs.
Oceanic Climate
Loire Valley Rosé
Established in 1974, Rosé de Loire is an official appellation that covers rosé made in the Loire Valley region of western France. Broadly speaking, the appellation follows the wider Loire River valley from Blois in the east, almost to Nantes, on the Atlantic coast in the west, covering the same lands as Touraine, Saumur and Anjou but stopping on the border with Muscadet.
Obviously, such a wide swath of land is varied in terrain and geography, from the shale-based vineyards in Anjou to the undulating chalk and tuffeau hills of Saumur and Vouvray. Touraine itself boasts a wide variety of soil types (including clay-limestone, clay-flint, as well as sand or light gravel on tuffeau. Climatically, the region is heavily influenced by water, with the Loire River and its tributaries moderating both very warm and very cold weather while the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay) to the west is the origin of much of the weather patterns in the area.
Only Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Grolleau, Grolleau Gris, Pineau d’Aunis and Pinot Noir are permitted in Rosé de Loire wines. The blend (or single variety) used is at the discretion of the winemaker.
The 2023 Vintage
The Loire suffered a hit-and-miss 2023. The winter was relatively mild and rolled into an equally benign spring without cataclysmic frost. Budburst was largely successful, and the gently rising temperatures proved idyllic for flowering, with yields promising to be high. June, however, hot and humid and aggravated by frequent rain; disease pressure ran high. Producers had to frequently spray and those who weren’t vigilant lost yields. That said, the heat pushed the grapes to phenolic ripeness signaling an early harvest.
Although some parts of the valley were struck by several fierce heatwaves, nights were cool enough to preserve both acidity and aromatics.
Sancerre
Sancerre in a nutshell—or rather, an oyster shell—boils down to the sea. Sancerre’s terroir is built on the remnants of the vast primordial ocean that once covered the hills and valleys of northern France and deposited calcium-rich shells from ancient, oyster-like sea creatures. This is ideal soil for the two grapes for which Sancerre is justly famous, primarily Sauvignon Blanc and to a slightly lesser extent, making up about 20% of the output, Pinot Noir and its attendant rosé.
A ‘typical’ rosé from Sancerre is created by allowing the Pinot Noir to macerate on the skins for a short period of time, generally between two and 20 hours, lacing the wine with a deeply layered nose featuring elegant green citrus, sweet floral notes, passion fruit and fresh green herbs. A semi-tannic structure, which is prized in these rosés, usually means they are better after a year or two in the bottle.
Like its red-blooded parent, rosé made from Pinot Noir has a natural affinity for food, and is a perfect foil for the rich cheese produced throughout the appellation.
Domaine Pascal & Nicolas Reverdy
Sancerre Rosé
The oyster-shell limestone of Sancerre, called Kimmeridgian, forms the base soil beneath the tiny hamlet of Maimbray, located in a valley surrounded by chalk hills of Chavignol and Verdigny. Across 43 acres of this vital terroir, Pascal Reverdy and his wife Nathalie (alongside Nicolas’s widow Sophie) combine tradition with trajectory: Now, sons Victorien and Benjamin shore up the team. Having completed his DNO at Dijon, with stints at Armand Rousseau (Gevrey-Chambertin), Châteaux Léoville Las Cases and Beychevelle (St Julien) and Christine Vernay (Condrieu), Victorien returned first in 2019. Benjamin reappeared in the summer 2023, having cut his teeth at Domaine de la Romanée Conti.
Pascal, who founded the winery in 1993, explains the family’s mandate: “We are about 70% planted with Sauvignon Blanc and 30% with Pinot Noir. Hard pruning keeps yields low, with vineyard being grassed through, and lutte raisonnée being practiced. Harvesting is by hand and we have built a reputation across white, red and rosé Sancerres, with no oak ageing, as well as three special cuvées (Les Anges Lots, La Grande Rue and à Nicolas) which are barrel aged.”
5 Domaine Pascal & Nicolas Reverdy ‘Terre de Maimbray’, 2023 Reverdy Sancerre Rosé ($32)
The ‘Terre’ in the name is ‘blanche’—the ‘white earth’ of Sancerre’s classic terroir. From three acres of 30-year-old Pinot Noir grown in characteristic clay-limestone, direct-pressed and vinified in demi-muids (10%) and stainless steel tanks (90%), the wine shows a bouquet of ripe strawberries and red grapefruit underpinned by earthy tones that still allows bright acidity to sparkle through.
Domaine Roger & Christophe Moreux
Sancerre Rosé
Established in 1895, with winegrower roots extending back to the 16th century, work in the Moreaux’s 22 acres has been handed down across many generations. Today, following the retirement of his father Roger, responsibility rests with Christophe Moreaux.
Located in the tiny hamlet of Chavignol (population 200) along the Upper Loire River where they are renowned equally for their wine and their cheese—Crottin de Chavignol has its own appellation. Wine, however, is the passion of Christophe, who says, “We believe we are in possession of some of Sancerre’s greatest terroirs, the vineyards of Les Monts Damnés and Les Bouffants.”
Moreaux production is a scant 65,000 bottles per year, with about one quarter of it made from Pinot Noir, both red and rosé; it is fermented in stainless steel and aged for six to eight months before release.
6 Domaine Roger & Christophe Moreux ‘Cuvée des Lys’, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($27)
A lightly structured rosé with a distinct herbal edge; ripe with aromas of apricots, cherries, currants, and wild strawberries supported by vibrant acidity.
Domaine Pierre Morin
Sancerre Rosé
Gérard Morin took over the family’s vineyards about twenty years ago and, while making some of the most striking wines in Sancerre, he prepared his son Pierre to run the show. Pierre, who once worked the vineyards of Adelaide Hills, saw little in Australia worth emulating in Sancerre. He now helms the estate with an eye toward maintaining a house style typical of Bué (about a mile and a half from the village of Sancerre): rich, aromatic whites and some particularly deep reds that are best matched, according to Pierre, to “an andouillette cooked in the vineyard on vine prunings, ideally for breakfast.”
The Morin’s vines are planted on a steep hard-calcaire amphitheater surrounding the commune of Bué and consist of 17 acres of Sauvignon Blanc and five of Pinot Noir. Yields are held low through spring de-budding (one of Pierre’s few, but significant changes) and all harvesting is done by hand. Fermentation is done by parcel in an air-conditioned chai, in enameled steel vats, with the finished wines left alone on their lees for as long as possible.
7 Domaine Pierre Morin, 2023 Sancerre Rosé – Bué ‘Les Rimbardes’ ($31)
Les Rimbardes is situated to the east of Bué, nearly to the border of Sancerre. Soils here are heavy with clay, giving the wines more heft. This fruit-forward rosé offers grapefruit, strawberry, Meyer lemon, and tangerine zest aromas intertwined with rhubarb, lemon and hints of caramel.
Domaine Dominique et Janine Crochet
Sancerre Rosé
The steeps slopes of Bué are also home to winemakers Teddy and Cyprien Crochet, who took over from their father Dominique after his untimely passing. Although Teddy spent time as a rugby player, he remains true to his roots, now five generations deep. Cyprien raves about the holdings in Chêne Marchand, Grand Chemarin, Champ Chêne and the steepest vineyards in the La Côte de Bué: “We like to think that the Crochet name is synonymous with the town of Bué,” Cyprien says, “…one of the three greatest villages in Sancerre. We’re equally proud to be producing Sancerre in a winery our father started in a garage—we are true garagistes making ‘vins de garage.’”
Established in 1992, Dominique and Janine began with a handful of of perfectly situated hillside acres. Today, the domaine extends to nearly forty acres hosting more than forty tiny parcels. Grapes are hand-harvested—a Bué necessity, given the steep hillsides—and indigenous yeast is preferred, especially for the reds, which are treated to light clay filtration before bottling
8 Domaine Dominique et Janine Crochet, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($29)
Grown on silex soils, the wine is attractive in both color and bouquet; salmon pink and perfumed with cherry and rose petal, which is echoed on the palate with juicy citrus accents and culminates in an energetic and crisp finish.
Domaine de Sacy
Sancerre Rosé
In keeping with the theme of these selections—small production, family-owned hamlet wines—miniscule Sacy nestles near Crézancy and Bué; Karine Millet has taken over the family domaine with of vines. Karine practices polyculture, the historical practice in Sancerre, where cow manure from the farm is used throughout the vineyards and sustainable viticulture, without herbicide or pesticide, is the rule of the day. Her vines average 30 years old, with some approaching half a century.
“Our soil is all ‘terres blanche,’” Karine says. “This is a late-ripening terroir made of thick clay layers intertwined with flat, white limestone. It’s rich in fossils that have the particularity of whitening while drying in the sun. Terres Blanches terroir gives a strong aromatic concentration, tension and aging potential to the wines as well as a pronounced mineral character.”
9 Domaine de Sacy, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($29)
A beautiful and balanced summer wine offering medley of citrus flavors wrapped in an with an intense bouquet of strawberry, raspberry and red fruit cake. The palate shows solid Sancerre structure with varietal character: spicy red Pinot Noir with a classic hint of watermelon rind and mineral notes.
Menetou-Salon
Menetou-Salon is an AOP in the Centre-Val de Loire with vineyards extending over 820 acres and covering 10 communes, including Menetou-Salon itself. Only 3600 bottles of Menetou-Salon Rosé reach American shores each year, so if you can find it, you are in an exclusive club.
Domaine Philippe Gilbert
Menetou-Salon Rosé
Having felt the pull of the soil, Phillipe Gilbert left his occupation as a successful playwright to take over the family estate in the hamlet of Faucards in the midst of Menetou-Salon. The vineyards are scattered throughout the heart of the appellation in prime sectors of the villages of Menetou-Salon, Vignoux, Parassy and Morogues where the soil is a classic mix of clay and limestone sitting on the famous Kimmeridgian basin.
With the assistance of his colleague, Jean-Philippe Louis, Philippe Gilbert has plunged headlong into the system of biodynamic viticulture and the domaine is now certified as an organic producer.
10 Domaine Philippe Gilbert, 2023 Menetou-Salon Rosé ($32)
100% Pinot Noir, Philippe’s standout rosé is pressed directly and fermented spontaneously—a rare practice for the category since most growers want to ensure market-demanded consistency at all costs. It spends six months in steel, undergoing natural malolactic fermentation. Exuberant and energetic, it offers brambly raspberry, white cherry and grapefruit zest interlaced with notes of pulverized chalk and wet river stones.
Chinon
Playwright François Rabelais (a Chinon local boy made good) wrote, “”I know where Chinon lies, and the painted wine cellar also, having myself drunk there many a glass of cool wine.” That wine was likely red: though capable of producing wines of all hues, Chinon’s focus is predominantly red; last year, white and rosé wines accounted for less than five percent of its total output. Cab Franc is king, and 95% of the vineyards are thus planted. Rabelais’ true stage was set 90 million years ago, when the yellow sedimentary tuffeau, characteristic of the region, was formed. This rock is a combination of sand and fossilized zooplankton; it absorbs water quickly and releases it slowly—an ideal situation for deeply-rooted vines.
Château de la Bonnelière
Chinon Rosé
Respect for tradition and love of family are the twin forces that animate Château de la Bonnelière: In 1976, Pierre Plouzeau bought the old family castle and renovated the property while replanting the largely-vanished vineyards. His son Marc took over in 1999 and has become one of Chinon’s most prolific and talented personalities, responsible for a plethora of marvelous juice—red, white and pink. 43 acres of vines and a 1500-square-meter cellar carved out of the castle’s solid stone foundation provide an environment as beautiful as it is fecund.
11 Château de la Bonnelière ‘M Plouzeau – Rive Gauche’, 2023 Chinon Rosé ($19)
A cuvée born in the alluvial soils on the left bank of the Vienne, where the sand and gravel terroir produce Cabernet Franc of exceptional freshness. The wine shows crisp minerality and notes of raspberries and peaches.
Rosé-de-Loire
Although rosé production in Loire has expanded markedly in recent years, its commercial origins go back to the early 20th Century when the wines were dubbed ‘Rouget’ in the Anjou and ‘Vin Gris’ in Touraine. Today, they are required to be dry with no more than three grams per liter of residual sugar and cannot have more than 12.5% alcohol-by-volume.
The title covers much of the rosé production in the area although it is worth noting that all the appellations covered by the Rosé de Loire title can produce their own rosé. Both the Saumur and Anjou appellations can make rosé produced from Cabernets Franc or Sauvignon and these must be labeled “Cabernet de Saumur” or “Cabernet d’Anjou” respectively. Additionally, Rosé d’Anjou (another possible rosé title in Anjou) is broadly similar in production requirements to Rosé-de-Loire.
Château Soucherie
Rosé-de-Loire
Perched on a rise overlooking the Layon river, Soucherie is considered one of the most beautiful domains in Anjou. Roger-Francois and Pascal Beguinot have transformed 90 acres of limestone, clay and schist into multiple lieux-dits spread across Anjou, Chaume, Coteaux du Layon and Savennieres. Around the winery, 54 acres are planted on a southern hillside sheltered from the winds; the 11 acres in Chaume contain vines over 70 years old while the four acres in Savennieres (Clos des Perrieres), loaded with shale, produce wines noted for their minerality. Maître de chai Thibaud Boudignon is leading the charge towards 100% organic viticulture through the principles of ‘agriculture integrée’—a ‘whole farm’ management system intended t deliver more sustainable agriculture by combining modern technologies with traditional practices according to a given site and situation.
12 Château Soucherie ‘L’Astrée’, 2023 Rosé-de-Loire ($27) Gamay
Cellarmaster Vianney de Tastes hand-harvests this pure Gamay rosé, and shapes the variety into a pale, juicy and dynamic wine by direct pressing and four-months of aging in stainless steel. The wine offers white peach, dandelion greens, sweet basil and pineapple sage.
Semi-oceanic Climate
Champagne’s Coteaux-Champenois Rosé
Côteaux Champenois Rosé is a still Champagne as rare as a five-leaf clover; it is only produced from select, authorized vines, and only in certain vintages, in extremely limited quantities, and by very few Vignerons.
Domaine Fleury
Côte-des-Bar
Although it sounds a bit contradictory, doing what comes naturally’ is often an exacting science and a dedicated quest, and nowhere in Champagne is this more evident than in the fields and cellars of Domaine Fleury, the Côte des Bar foremost champion of ‘The Art of Nature.’
Founded in 1895 in the heart of the Côte des Bar and driven by the terroir of the clay-limestone hillsides formed by the first tributaries of the Seine, Fleury has a storied history in the region, managing to weather both the phylloxera crisis and the market crash of 1929. But according to Jean-Pierre Fleury, it was biodynamics over all else that gave new meaning to Champagne production: “To be respectful of the natural and living heritage of this terroir, where custodians of the land forever learn, in all humility, to perceive the balance and to unearth its mysteries.”
Gone entirely biodynamic by 1992—a time when the concept was foreign to nearly every winemaker in France—Jean-Pierre has passed the spirit of purity and innovation to his children: Morgane Fleury, an actress and sommelier, who has developed a new concept of an ecological wine and champagne bar in central Paris; Jean-Sébastien, also at the heart of innovation at the domain, who is experimenting with grafting techniques in the vines as well as reintroducing horses to work on certain plots; Benoît, who is currently working with massale selection and agroforestry as new ways of cultivating the vines in symbiosis with an adapting environment.
Domaine Fleury, Coteaux-Champenois ‘Côte-des-Bar’ Rosé ($68)
Comprised of vintages 2017, 2018 and 2019 hand-harvested 35 to 40 years old Pinot Noir vines, fermented spontaneously with low-intervention, bottled unfined and unfiltered. The wine offers a nose of Maraschino cherry, strawberry and lemon zest while the fruit-driven palate had notes of cherry and raspberry behind bright acidity.
Domaine Lelarge-Pugeot
Montagne-de-Reims
In 1985, when Dominique Lelarge took over his family estate, his first order of business was to improve the quality of the soil in the vineyard, and this began with a more sustainable farming approach. To this day, he views the use of pesticide an inherent threat to nature, and treats this understanding as a wake-up call: “Life is a gift from nature,” he says. “Everything starts in the vineyard, so it is important for us to respect what nature handed us.”
Although the Lelarge family has grown grapes in Vrigny since 1799, the last two decades have seen the leadership of the two Dominiques (winemakers and owners Dominique Lelarge and Dominique Pugeot) embrace and encourage diversity in both their ecosystem and in their outlook on Champagne production. Nestled in the Premier Cru village of Vrigny on the Montagne de Reims slopes—a mere 15 minutes west of Reims—their 21 acres are planted primarily to Meunier (11 acres), but a percentage of Pinot Noir (7 acres) and Chardonnay (3.4 acres) also figure into their blended wines.
Certified organic since 2014 and biodynamic since 2017 by Demeter, Lelarge-Pugeot encompasses 42 distinct parcels flourishing at elevations averaging 400 ft.
“We do not make wine so much as we farm vines, meticulously looking after every single step of the growth to produce the most natural Champagne possible.”
Domaine Lelarge-Pugeot, 2020 Coteaux-Champenois ‘Montagne-de-Reims’ Premier Cru Vrigny Meunier Rosé ($66)
A zéro-zéro cuvée that represents the family’s first ever attempt at making a still rosé made exclusively Meunier. The fruit comes from two parcels of 40-year-old vines with tiny concentrated clusters, which create highly aromatic Meunier showing high-toned notes watermelon, pomegranate, tarragon and salinity.
Continental Climate
Burgundy Rosé
Don’t let its relative lack of press fool you—Bourgogne Rosé is made in 300 communes throughout Burgundy and comes in multiple incarnations; some barbecue basic, others rich and cellar-worthy.
As might be imagined, most Bourgogne Rosé is mad with Pinot Noir, although Gamay is also permitted (there are some made exclusively from Gamay—in fact, if you see a rosé with ‘Mâcon’ and another geographical denomination on the label, the wine must be 100% Gamay). In very rare cases, Pinot Gris (known as Pinot Beurot in Burgundy), Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc turn up in a rosé, at least in part to help manage the wines’ color. In the northern Grand Auxerrois region, the ancient César grape gets to play a supporting role, adding some depth and structure.
The 2023 Vintage
In terms of yield, 2023 was historic—the quantity of healthy grapes grown had not been seen since 1982, and bunches were harvested that weighed double the norm. So copious was the output of Burgundian vineyards that, due to INAO rules, it could not all be harvested. The major producers had to cut 50% of the harvest to meet the normal, optimal 35-40 hl/ha.
With yields like this, it is doubtful that 2023 will go down as a great vintage, but it will certainly produce lively and energetic vintage, which is an ideal scenario for rosé.
Domaine Collotte
(Côte-de-Nuits)
Marsannay Rosé
Located on Rue de Mazy, Marsannay’s ‘high street’, Domaine Collotte shares a headquarters with Domaine Fougeray de Beauclair, owned by a Collotte cousin. Formerly under the control of Philippe Collotte, his daughter Isabelle—having completed her viticulture studies—has joined her father in the domain and specializes in making the family’s superb Marsannay Blancs.
Isabelle entered the business with plenty to work with: Covering about forty acres, mainly in Marsannay but with small plots in Fixin, Gevrey and Chambolle, Domaine Collotte draws mainly from vines over fifty years old and farms one lieu-dit planted in 1947. Among the innovations she has insisted upon involves selling less wine in bulk, which was a practice of her father.
In addition, she has embraced a holistic view of vineyard work: “Plowing is the norm here, no herbicides,” she says. “The grapes are triaged at the winery before 100% destemming into concrete tanks with one week of cool maceration. We love the thermal stability of concrete so there is a little pigeage early in fermentation and later only remontage. The color is ‘fixed’ with a short period at 35°C where the wine slowly cooling in the tank before a pneumatic press and then into barrels.”
Phillipe adds, “The common thread running through Domaine Collotte is an intimate link, our visceral attachment to Marsannay. For over 100 years, each generation of the Collotte family has dedicated its life to this village and its vineyards. Even if some of our parcels are located in Chambolle-Musigny, Fixin or Gevrey-Chambertin, it is in Marsannay-la-Côte that the heart of Domaine Collotte beats. Clos de Jeu, Champ Salomon, Boivin, Grasses Têtes, Combereau are a few of the Climats de Marsannay that plunge us daily into history by domain that is eminently proud of its roots.”
Domaine Collotte, 2023 Marsannay Rosé ($26)
Isabelle Collotte’s 2023 rosé is sourced a two-acre plot of Pinot Noir; the harvest is sorted as soon as it arrives in the vat room before being pressed directly. The pressing is done on a long cycle and at low pressure for a quality must; static settling is carried out for 24 hours and the wine is vinified in stainless steel tanks. The wine displays aromas of raspberry and tangerine, supported by secondary notes of rose water, rhubarb and anise.
Pierre-Marie Chermette
Beaujolais Rosé
Pierre-Marie Chermette was raised in the vineyard; his fondest memories of the family home in Vissoux was riding the tractor. He pursued it as his life’s work, earning National Diploma of Oenologist from Dijon at the age of 20. Two years later, he convinced his father to stop selling the fruits of his labor to merchants, and developed the market estate bottled wines, increasing the plots who was selling his wine in bulk to merchants. He invests himself fully in the family winery by developing the marketing of bottled wines. Over the years, he diversified the number of appellations the family worked, and is now responsible for nearly 75 acres.
Pierre-Marie Chermette Vissoux ‘Griottes’, 2023 Beaujolais Rosé ($22)
The estate started making rosé in 1985, when it was a genuine rarity in Beaujolais region, relying on younger vines to produce a vibrant, tangy rosé that shows wild strawberry and Morello cherry with undertones of stony minerals, dried herb and star anise.
Rosé with Character and Dimension
Since 2000, white wine sales in France have plateaued while rosé’s have doubled; over that same timespan, red wine has declined in popularity at such a staggering rate that even if rosé does not win over a single new fan, it may well surpass red wine sales in France in the future.
There is more to the phenomenon than simply wine drinkers making a bandwagon fashion statement. Even those who had to be weaned from white zinfandel are discovering that pink wine is not merely washed-out red, but a gustatory middle-ground between the lightness of white and the heaviness of red—a product able to offer more depth with less tannin and the ability to evolve with age in a way that is both unique and multi-dimensional.
Domaine Gavoty
Côtes-de-Provence Rosé
Roselyn Gavoty (the eighth generation of Gavoty to helm her family’s Roman-era farm; her ancestor Philémon acquired it in 1806) is on the cutting edge of viticulture. Situated along the Issole River in the northwestern corner of the Côtes-de-Provence, surrounded by oak and pine forests, the Gavoty family has worked the land without synthetic chemicals for decades, obtaining organic certification in recent years. The vineyard covers 150 acres in the commune of Cabasse (‘harvest field’ in the old Provençal language). Roselyn says, “Our vines are planted on clay-limestone soil, and produce a majority of rosé by the saignée method, involving involves bleeding off a portion of red must to create structure and depth.”
Domaine Gavoty ‘Clarendon’, 2022 Côtes-de-Provence Rosé ($37) – Current Release
In his articles for ‘Le Figaro’, Bernard Gavoty often wrote under the pseudonym ‘Clarendon,’ and this cuvée—produced from the domaine’s oldest Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan vines (dating back to the early 1960s)—honors his memory. Combining saignée with the juice from the first pressing, the wine striking a wonderful balance between vinosity and immediacy, showing strawberries and red currants.
- - -
Posted on 2024.07.05 in Rosé de Loire, Anjou, cassis, Bandol, Menetou-Salon, Santenay, Chinon, Sancerre, Côte-de-Provence, Côtes-du-Rhône, France, Beaujolais, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire, Southern Rhone | Read more...
An Invitation to Join ‘The Champagne Society’
JOIN THE CHAMPAGNE SOCIETY
Subscribe to our bimonthly Champagne Club. Please, call us at 248-398-0030 or email elie@eliewine.com
As a member of The Champagne Society, you’re in a select community of like-minded folks who appreciate the exceptional in life and recognize that sparkling wine is a superlative among man’s culinary creations. A bottle of Champagne is selected for you bimonthly. You will be drinking some of the best Champagne ever produced.
All selected wines are from passionate grower-producers or small houses deeply connected to the subtleties of each of their vine parcels and who believe that wine is made in the vineyard. Many of these wines are highly allocated, many bought directly, and we quite often only have access to a few cases of a particular cuvée.
As a member of The Champagne Society expect the following benefits:
• The selected Champagne quite often is not available in any other wine shop in Michigan and only in a few places, if any, in the country. We compete with savvy wine buyers in the European and the Far East markets to secure some of the allocations from these sought-after makers.
• The selection is released every other month and ready for pickup by the 10th of that month, or shipped if you prefer. Expect a new bottle in February, April, June, August, October and December.
• The price is always less than $110 and reflects 15% discount of the store price when we have additional quantities to sell to non-members. Champagne available, members may purchase any number of additional bottles at the same discounted price.
• We notify you via email when the installment selection is released in a newsletter that profiles the producer and the cuvée chosen. The newsletter is also posted on www.eliewine.com . Only then your credit card is charged and you are sent a separate purchase receipt.
• You can pause or cancel your membership at any time.
- - -
Posted on 2024.07.02 in France, The Champagne Society, Champagne | Read more...
The Champagne Society August 2024 Selection: Champagne Dosnon
New Generation Vignerons are Champagne’s Future
Davy Dosnon, in Previously Marginalized Côte de Bar, is Turning Exquisite Wines Into Precise and Meditative Champagne.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Blanche’, Côte-des-Bar Blanc-de-Blancs Brut ($87)
• OR •
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Rosé’, Côte-des-Bar Rosé Brut ($87)
Ponce de León went to Florida in search of the Fountain of Youth and came up empty. Perhaps he’d have been better off focusing his sights on the Côte de Bar, where a new generation of cellar masters are currently constructing new rules over the foundation of old ones and producing elixirs worthy of an history-making expedition.
About 90 minutes by car to the south of the celebrated towns of Reims and Épernay, the Côte des Bar has historically been dismissed as a lesser Champagne region, although the grapes were indispensable in the blends of the biggest Houses. The area is solidly rural—a reminder that raising grapes is farming first and foremost. There aren’t any chalk caves in the Côte de Bar but there are some great cellars in the process of building reputations.
This TCS selection, we’ll take a look at one of them. The young artisan Davy Dosnon runs a small House in Avirey-Lingey where he embraces the philosophies of sustainable viticulture while making non-manipulated Champagne from 19 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier. He is a frontrunner in the new generation that is beginning to redefine Champagne, and the liquid that flows from his cellar is invigorating enough to kickstart the soul of old Ponce de León himself.
Reframing Champagne: Wine Like Any Other
The first step in reframing Champagne is to roll back two hundred years of marketing. Ironically, when Louis XIV drank the stuff, bubbles were considered to be a defect; at the time, Champagne and Burgundy were competing to become the preeminent French producer of still Pinot Noir.
It was a battle that Champagne was destined to lose—Champagne is cooler than Burgundy, and the reds it produced were often light, thin and acidic, made from grapes that had not reached full phenolic ripeness. Whereas this may be less than optimal for table wine, it winds up being ideal for sparkling wine, whose origins were natural: Winter weather would cause the in-bottle fermentation to halt during and when things warmed in the spring, the fermentation process would start back up, delivering unexpected effervescence. Once the technical bugs were worked out in the process—primarily, how to keep the bottles from exploding—sparkling wine grew in prestige and price, becoming a favorite of the royal courts in Europe. For others, it was (and is) a special-occasion wine; the tipple of celebrations and the domain of the elite.
Honest wine strives to be as natural as possible, and a new generation in Champagne finds itself with an unexpected gift from providence: A warming climate. Winemakers like Davy Dosnon have re-emphasized the importance of the base wine; his acreage, with Kimmeridgian and Portlandian clay-limestone soils, produce particularly rich fruit, Pinot Noir especially.
Says Dosnon, “Nicolas Laugerotte, commercial manager of the domain, is my partner in this adventure and together we share the same values of excellence, precision and requirement. Our goal is to make great wines to produce great Champagnes.”
It is through this scaffold that Champagne can find a central location not only during celebrations and special occasions, but at the dinner table, as an accompaniment to a meal, and as a wine, given its intellectual due.
The Rise of the South: Côte des Bar, Previously Marginalized, Into the Spotlight.
(Since the Côte des Bars is the Aube’s only significant wine producing area, the two names are generally interchangeable in winemaking discussions.)
‘Aube’ translates to ‘dawn’, so it is fitting that this district is Champagne’s rising star. In part this is because of the district’s push towards a culture of artisanal, experimental, terroir-driven Champagne. Situated further south than the other four regions, it is less prone to frost and the Pinot Noirs of the Aube are rich and fruit-driven. Although the district is devoid of Grand or Premier Cru vineyards, since the 1950s, grapes grown there have formed a vital backbone of the blend produced by many of the top Champagne houses.
Perhaps the lack of a historical reputation means that the AOP has less to lose, but the overall mindset of the region encourages mavericks, which in tradition-heavy Champagne is rarely seen. It is these independent winemakers that are primarily responsible for district’s mushrooming growth, which now makes up almost a quarter of the entire Champagne region.
The vines of the Côte des Bar can be found scattered patches within two main districts, the Barséquenais, centered on Bar-sur-Seine, and the Barsuraubois, centered on Bar-sur-Aube.
Helping to forge the region’s new identity is a crew of younger grower/producers, many of whom have traveled abroad and trained in other winemaking regions. As a result, they tend to focus more on individuality; single-variety, single-vintage, and single-vineyard Champagnes from the Côte des Bar are quite common. Not only that, but land remains relatively inexpensive, which encourages experimentation. Even though many of Côte des Bar’s Champagnes are 100% Pinot Noir, styles can differ markedly from producer to producer, bottling to bottling and, of course, vintage to vintage.
Champagne Dosnon
“Making Great Wines to Produce Great Champagne”
Half an hour north of Chablis, in and around the villages of Avirey and Lingey, Davy Dosnon tends a patchwork of vines intermixed with forest and fields of grain. Having been born and raised among these rolling hills, he is descended from growers who spent centuries identifying the rockiest and most suitable places to grow vines. In fact, he preserves many of their tools and records in his cellar.
Davy Dosnon, Champagne Dosnon
Davy studied viticulture in Dijon and worked in top Burgundy wine houses before moving back to the village of Lingey, intending to reassemble his family’s vineyards. Here the terroir is starkly different from northern Champagne and its famed chalky soils; in the Aube the terroir is closer to that of Chablis—clay over Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone, soils produce wines of great delineation, power and purity.
Central to Dosnon’s modus operandi is fermenting entirely in former Puligny-Montrachet barrels. Dosages are very low (if any) and the wines benefit from the restraint. None are fined or filtered.
Oak in Champagne remains controversial; when done at all, it must be done gently, without drawing attention to itself. In Dosnan’s cellar, it is meant to add creaminess, complexity and weight, not tannins.
Viticulture: Intentional and Careful Farming.
“We practice sustainable viticulture in order to meet the quality requirements of the House,” says Davy Dosnon. “The plots are thus grassed to promote microbial life in the soil; the soils are scratched and plowed for aeration and no chemical fertilizers are added. The House also uses the permanent Cordon de Royat pruning sizes for Pinot Noir and Chablis sizes for Chardonnay. This short pruning allows for a better control of yield. Topping and high trimming are also carried out in June to control the vigor of the plants. We always hand-harvest, seeking bunches with optimum maturity.”
Dosnon uses a traditional vertical press for crushing, pointing out that this configuration reduces the movements of the bunch to a strict minimum during extraction and allows finer, less stained and perfectly clear juices to be obtained.
(Not Losing Sight of) Terroir for the Trees: Comfortable Disposition of Oak Integration.
Having trained in Burgundy and seen the synergy between wood and grape, Dosnon is convinced that there is no more beautiful setting for a Grand Vin de Champagne than an oak barrel: “Only wood allows micro-exchanges between the wine and the oxygen in the atmosphere, which promotes the natural evolution of Champagne and gives them their complexity.”
His vinifications, therefore, are carried out largely en barrique, followed by optimum aging ‘with the aim of producing complex and rounded Champagnes while preserving their finesse and purity through low dosage.’
Most of the wines vinified and aged in 228-liter Burgundy oak barrels, mainly from Puligny-Montrachet. The barrels are at least 5 years old and do not transmit any tannin or wood taste to the wine.
“After tasting and analysis,” Dosnon explains, “we proceed to a selection between the wines which will be vinified in wood and those which will be vinified in vats but always in ultra-minority proportions when the years require it.”
* And now for something completely different:
Just as vineyards are known for terroir, so do the oak trees used to make barrels reflect their place of origin. The Argonne forest, for example, contains countless hillocks with unique exposures, and these expositions are said to bring different aromas to the wood. Some produce fruit notes, some minerality; some contain more tannin than others. If this sounds a lot like grape descriptors, it is no wonder. There is an almost mystical collaboration between the product of vines and of forests that is as old as winemaking itself.
Maturation: The Right Upbringing to Achieve Complexity and Fullness.
“Great Champagne wines need time to mature,” says Davy Dosnon. “Only when they have reached the perfect balance of freshness and fullness will they be ready to drink. The optimum aging period varies depending on the different vintages that we produce, but never being less than 20 months and up to 10 years in the cellar for our vintages.
After a Champagne’s second, in-bottle fermentation, the lees remain inside the bottle until disgorgement. This phase of development is often overlooked as essential for the wine’s intended character to emerge, but as seen in Houses without the capital to invest in long-term lees aging, much of the potential quality is lost.
Technically, non-vintage Champagne must be aged on its lees for a minimum of one year, while vintage Champagne demands three years. These are minimums, of course, and prestige cuvées may be left for a decade or more prior to the removal of lees sediment.
Flying Solo
As much as Champagne makers love exotic, multi-layered blends, monovarietal wines (or with blanc de noirs that ‘fly duo’, two varieties) have an equally strong tradition in the region. Blanc de Blancs is a term found only in Champagne and used to refer to champagne produced entirely from white grapes, most commonly Chardonnay. Pinot Blanc and Arbane can also be used, as well as a number of other varieties permitted by appellation, but these are less common. This makes Blanc de Blancs different from the majority of Champagnes that are a traditional blend of white and red grapes with colorless juice such as Pinot Noir and Meunier. It is also different from Blanc de Noirs champagne, which is produced exclusively from Pinot Noir and Meunier.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Blanche’, Côte-des-Bar Blanc-de-Blancs Brut ($87) TCS Selection
100% Chardonnay from vines around 25 years old; hand harvested, pressed manually and fermented in 20% new 228-liter Oak barrels; and used Puligny-Montrachet barrels, second and third fill. The wine spends two years minimum sur latte with 20% reserve wine aged in barrel; 5 grams dosage. Dosnon’s love of Côte-des-Bar Chardonnay allows for a small quantity of this wine to be made; it shows pinpoint minerality and stone fruit with a floral underpinning. Disgorged January 2023.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Noire’, Côte-des-Bar Blanc-de-Noirs Brut ($68)
100% oak-fermented Pinot Noir with a minimum of two years aging in the bottle and a dosage around 5 grams. The wine is filled with crushed red berry notes, ground spice and graphite are layered with hints of lemon zest and chamomile. Disgorged July 2022.
Blended: In Pursuit of Complexity and Completeness
A common misconception holds that base Champagne (the still vin clairs that have not yet undergone the steps that transform it in the final blended and bottled product) are neutral and low in alcohol and flavor. This notion does a disservice to the way fruit ripens in northerly climates like Champagne, where a grape can obtain physiological ripeness without developing sufficient sugar to produce high-alcohol wine. And ripe grapes of the noble varieties do not produce neutral wine!
Before it becomes a bubbly bauble, a certain criterion should be established under which to consider Champagne a serious wine—namely, is it capable of reflecting the terroir from which it originated? Another misconception insists that a blended wine cannot express a place of origin, and any sense of individuality must arise from the winemaking process.
But Champagne is not necessarily beholden to the classic French definition of terroir. Although more single vineyard and village-specific Champagnes are made now than ever before, the identity of a wine may be the complexity and completeness that comes from blends. A balanced and opulent blend is always a better bet than a terroir-driven but clumsy selection and many modern chefs du cave are looking at even narrower distinctions than vineyard sites, using parcels within that vineyard to express specific desired characteristics.
Rather than being a dilution of terroir, this is evidence of how highly terroir is regarded.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Brute’, Côte-des-Bar Brut ($77)
A muscular blend of Pinot Noir (70%) and Chardonnay (30%) grown on the Kimmeridgian soils; a low dosage (5 grams) and at least 3 years of aging in bottle before disgorgement produces a Champagne with rich poached-pear notes over buttered toast, white flowers and vanilla with firm acidity and chalky minerality. Disgorged June 2022.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Rosé’, Côte-des-Bar Rosé Brut ($87) TCS Selection
95% Pinot Noir and 5% Pinot Meunier. Meunier is not common in the Côte-des-Bar, but Dosnon feels that it adds spice and fruit to the party. The base wine fermented and aged in used Puligny-Montrachet barrels and a minimum of 2 years aging in bottle with a dosage of 5 grams (the same as Récolte Noire). The wine bears all the hallmarks of the Donson style—a pure, focused, intensely mineral backbone with a clear, spicy, red-fruit and orange peel lift to the flavors. Disgorged September 2021.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Alliae’, (Harvest 2010) Côte-des-Bar Brut-Nature ($147)
50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay that undergoes a ten month vinification/aging process in used oak barrels, then 55 months of aging on slats. Dosnon’s choice of zero dosage for this cuvée is intended to allow the expression of the richness and liveliness of the fruit unencumbered by sugar. The silky palate is full of complexity and nuance and showcases pear, apricot and chalky minerality. Disgorged January 2016.
Champagne’s Paradigm Shift: New Reality
Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon of Champagne Louis Roederer has been tracking climate change in Champagne since the year 2000. He reports, “Our archives covering harvests over the past 60 years show that since 1995 Champagne has returned to maturity levels which are, on average, in excess of 10 natural degrees of alcohol, with acidity levels around 7 to 8g/l. These levels are close to those traditionally seen for great vintages including 1945, 1947 and 1959, but today’s yields are sometimes three to four times higher.”
Harvest dates in the vineyards of Champagne are among the marks used to measure climate change in general. Since 1989 (the end of a cool temperature cycle) harvest dates have crawled gradually backwards and the 2007 harvest started on August 20. By comparison, in 1945, the harvest commenced on September 8 and the 1947 harvest started on September 2, whilst harvests in the late 1980s were in early October. Harvest dates have grown earlier in each of recent years as means of controlling grape characteristics. Winemakers have been relying on newer techniques to obtain fresher wines as the raw material becomes riper. They are careful to manage malolactic fermentation, sometimes doing only partial MLF or halting it altogether.
Vintage 2009 represents the paradigm shift sweeping the region; in ways, a return to the golden years. It began with a cold winter, but a mild spring, and although early summer saw variable weather, August and September brought ample sunshine and warmth contributing to fine grape health. Harvest was pushed back until September 8, and the grapes, in general, displayed high sugar content and soft acidity. Potential alcohol crept up to 10.3% while acidity remained at 7.5 grams/liter at a pH of 3.08.
2009 produced a voluminous crop (12,280 kilogram/hectare) and the wines are generous that showed impressively even as vin clair. It is an apt example of a vintage of the current era, when retaining freshness is more of a challenge than attaining ripeness.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Millésime’, 2009 Côte-des-Bar Blanc-de-Blancs Brut-Nature ($289)
100% Chardonnay aged in 228-liter casks for ten months followed by ten years aging on the less. A truly amazing wine with a buoyant personality filled with perfume of lemon custard, honeysuckle, fresh brioche, a hint of almond and juicy pear. The wine is fully mature yet retains all the dynamism and freshness of its youth. Disgorged January 2018, Zéro dosage.
Notebook …
Drawing The Boundaries of The Champagne Region
To be Champagne is to be an aristocrat. Your origins may be humble and your feet may be in the dirt; your hands are scarred from pruning and your back aches from moving barrels. But your head is always in the stars.
As such, the struggle to preserve its identity has been at the heart of Champagne’s self-confidence. Although the Champagne controlled designation of origin (AOC) wasn’t recognized until 1936, defense of the designation by its producers goes back much further. Since the first bubble burst in the first glass of sparkling wine in Hautvillers Abbey, producers in Champagne have maintained that their terroirs are unique to the region and any other wine that bears the name is a pretender to their effervescent throne.
Having been defined and delimited by laws passed in 1927, the geography of Champagne is easily explained in a paragraph, but it takes a lifetime to understand it.
Ninety-three miles east of Paris, Champagne’s production zone spreads across 319 villages and encompasses roughly 85,000 acres. 17 of those villages have a legal entitlement to Grand Cru ranking, while 42 may label their bottles ‘Premier Cru.’ Four main growing areas (Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, the Côte des Blancs and the Côte des Bar) encompass nearly 280,000 individual plots of vines, each measuring a little over one thousand square feet.
The lauded wine writer Peter Liem expands the number of sub-regions from four to seven, dividing the Vallée de la Marne into the Grand Vallée and the Vallée de la Marne; adding the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay and combining the disparate zones between the heart of Champagne and Côte de Bar into a single sub-zone.
Courtesy of Wine Scholar Guild
Lying beyond even Liem’s overview is a permutation of particulars; there are nearly as many micro-terroirs in Champagne as there are vineyard plots. Climate, subsoil and elevation are immutable; the talent, philosophies and techniques of the growers and producers are not. Ideally, every plot is worked according to its individual profile to establish a stamp of origin, creating unique wines that compliment or contrast when final cuvées are created.
Champagne is predominantly made up of relatively flat countryside where cereal grain is the agricultural mainstay. Gently undulating hills are higher and more pronounced in the north, near the Ardennes, and in the south, an area known as the Plateau de Langres, and the most renowned vineyards lie on the chalky hills to the southwest of Reims and around the town of Épernay. Moderately steep terrain creates ideal vineyard sites by combining the superb drainage characteristic of chalky soils with excellent sun exposure, especially on south and east facing slopes.
… Yet another reason why this tiny slice of northern France, a mere 132 square miles, remains both elite and precious.
- - -
Posted on 2024.07.01 in France, The Champagne Society | Read more...
Mining the Minerality in Riesling: Dry Alsatian Wines Demonstrate Transparency and Express the Distinctive Character of Vineyards in Which the Grapes are Grown. Twenty-One Wines by Ten Outstanding Producers.
There’s no reason why the term ‘minerality’ should be controversial in wine descriptions, but since it is, maybe it’s better to think of it like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart did pornography: “I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it.”
Or taste it. The quality that winds up in tasting notes as ‘minerality’ covers a plethora of sensations that likely do not involve any actual minerals. Nor does it need to: When a Riesling is described as being ‘steely,’ nobody is expecting actual alloy-in-a-glass. When the word ‘minerality’ comes into play, it may lack the precision of, say, ‘kiwi fruit,’ but it is a summary of tastes that involve salinity, wet-stone freshness and a sort of granular powderiness in between chalk and seltzer. And for the record, it is nothing like ‘steeliness.’
Nowhere does this quality waft from the glass in a more recognizable form than in Alsatian Riesling, where it is a useful tool in identifying specific terroirs—the Grail of wine expression.
Alsace Rieslings Set a High, Dry Standard.
When you grow expressive grapes in ideal conditions, then refuse to mask subtleties or exuberances with oak, you have come close to achieving the holiest mission of Riesling in Alsace: Purity.
With the crystalline clarity of a Mozart concerto, the ideal manifestation of this style is sizzling and dry, linear (insofar as it should not lose any momentum on the palate) and hits the senses running. The classic nose shows citronella, grapefruit, peach, pear with lime blossom and nettle flowers. Depending on terroir, some will display cumin and fennel, but above all the mineral notes mentioned above will manifest themselves as gunflint and kerosene.
This organoleptic kaleidoscope is also renowned for its ability to mature with finesse over many years—potentially, for decades.
Riesling may be the ultimate Rhineland grape, but once it became acclimatized to the unique conditions of Alsace, it began to produce a wine utterly unlike the off-dry to sweet German classics. Having been introduced to Alsace at the end of the 15th century, the uptick in acreage only developed in the second half of the 19th century, and it was not until the 1960s that it reached the top position of production areas in Alsace.
Today, it is standard-bearer for a specific style of Riesling; acidic elegance, vigorous and exquisite aromas along with strong ties to the mineral world. Dryness is not a given, although the late-harvested versions will be designated as such.
Riesling: The Most Transparent of Grapes
The diversity of Alsace terroirs is ideal for this grape as it’s a transparent veil. Transparency, like minerality (and many other things ‘Riesling’) is often misunderstood. Essentially, it refers to a wine’s ability to translate the specifics of its vineyard site into flavors, aromas and textures that present themselves in the glass. Riesling is particularly adept at this, and the result is a flavor profile with an almost infinite variety of expressions.
Of course, this not a grape that suffers fools with foolish vineyard sites gladly. In order to give up this characteristic transparency, Riesling requires cool climate conditions, and in excessive heat, it quickly over-ripens and becomes flabby. Given long, slow ripening, however, Riesling’s power is without parallel. It’s no surprise that some of the world’s finest examples come from cold regions, where the vines are grown on terraces on steep slopes that maximize exposure to the sun. Some of the world’s top Riesling locations demonstrate marginal viticulture that walks a fine line toward greatness. Riesling, a grape that is often associated with struggle, thrives best in rocky, barren sites, but the reward of that struggle is the variety’s amazing ability to convey the signature of that site.
Alsace: A Geologist’s Dream
An Alsace cliché: ‘Walk 100 feet in any direction and you’ll find a totally different soil composition.’
The terroir of Alsace is, in fact, a mosaic of diversity; soils underlying the vineyards are a tapestry ranging from the schist and granite of the higher elevations (extending into the Vosges Mountains) to the limestone and chalk of the lower slopes and to the clay and gravel of the valley floors. However, it is the unique, reddish-colored sandstone of Alsace—known as grès des Vosges—that may be most interesting. Vosges sandstone runs in a large, horizontal swath through the range just below the granite layer from which it is derived and atop a layer of coal. Grès des Vosges is hard, compact sandstone composed mainly of quartz and feldspar. Its pink-reddish color is due to the presence of decomposing iron (iron oxide, as also seen in red soils throughout the world) that occurred as a result of the slow cooling of large masses of magma as it hardened into granite.
Most of the wine-making villages in Alsace are built on four or five different formations in a juxtaposition of often-restrained parcels, providing a montage of uniquely abundant and diverse soils. These infinite variations are the very heart of the exceptional diversity found in the Vins d’Alsace.
Grand Cru: Singularity of Character, Diversity of Climats.
As a gold medal represents the highest award that an Olympic athlete can win, in the wine world, Grand Cru is the highest designation to which a plot of land can aspire. If you are a lover of French wine (a rhetorical point since you are reading these words), it is no doubt a term that is both mysterious and sacred, as various pieces of earth have been considered in religious tradition from time immemorial; Kashi Viswanathan in India, Mecca in Arabia and Lourdes in France. Although not imbued with supernatural powers of healing, Grand Cru vineyards are saturated in terroir that is considered the ne plus ultra of any wider appellation.
At least, that’s the theory. In our continued exploration of Alsace, we find that Grand Cru status has an additional determining factor: Politics. This is not to suggest that these are not the finest wines that Alsace can produce, only that it may not be a guarantee of it, at least compared to Burgundy. Alsace has enormous geological diversity within a fairly constrained area, and each Grand Cru may rightly claim its own unique identity rather than an absolute commitment to rules that would ensure top quality and singularity of character.
Domaine Dirler-Cadé
As the name suggests, Domaine Dirler-Cadé is the union of two historical Alsatian winegrowing families. Jean Dirler is a 5th generation winemaker whose family had been making wine in the tiny village of Bergholtz, tucked into the lower hills of the Vosge Mountains, since 1871. Ludvine Cadé’s family owned vineyards in nearby Guebwiller, known as Domaine Hell-Cadé. The marriage of Ludvine and Jean in 2000 produced Domaine Dirler-Cadé, one of the finest domains in Alsace, with almost half of their 44 acres in Grand Cru vineyards, as well as plots in five lieux-dits.
A century before natural winemaking was in vogue, Jean’s family had been practicing winemaking under the motto ‘natural wines, fine wines.’ But during a training course with François Bouchet in 1997, Jean and his father Jean Pierre became convinced that biodynamics is the best possible way to produce true terroir wines.
Jean explains the eureka moment: “Right after the Bouchet course, we began to cultivate organically and biodynamically in order to best express the exceptional personality of these terroirs. In many parcels, we plough partially in autumn and completely in spring to ensure th destruction of the superficial roots and then let natural grassing reconstitute in summer to create a balanced and vita ecosystem.”
Jean-Pierre adds, “The soil in the vineyards is plowed four to five times a year by horse. The team removes flowers versus green harvesting, and old canes are not pruned off until March. Other organic practices such as natural crop covers, herbal teas, and homeopathic doses of horsetail instead of fertilizers. It doesn’t stop there—at harvest time, a small, close group of vineyard workers share food and wine during the season, as it is important to harvest the fruit by hand in a joyful and good mood, with a positive energy.”
In the winery, Dirler-Cadé uses slow, whole-cluster presses, spontaneous fermentations, and prolonged maturation on the lees. The resulting wines are expressive and complex, with a versatility that makes them just as fitting at a three-star Michelin restaurant as they are at a natural wine fair.
Domaine Dirler-Cadé, 2022 Alsace Riesling ($32)
Built from declassified Grand Cru grapes, Dirler-Cadé’s basic Riesling retains many of the markers of their vineyards of origin, juicy, supple, and aromatic, with intricacies of lime, verbena, herbs, and spice.
Grand Cru Kessler: “Exceptional Minerality Issued From Rich Sandstone Soil.”
Kessler Grand Cru is not only shaped like a basin, ‘basin’ is what Kessler means. The site is sheltered from the cold winds blowing along the Guebwiller valley, where dry stones form an unmistakable tie between the neighboring Grand Crus of Saering, Spiegel and Kitterlé. The blend of sand with heavier scree and its steep slope stimulate the production of wines full of character.
Kessler sits on a sandstone substrate from the Buntsandstein Vosges area, where erosion has produced red soils with rather abundant mineral deposits. At its base there is a linear outcrop of Muschelkalk limestone covered by sandstone. This creates compact and erythemal soils with a scant water table. But vineyards thrive only by developing a very deep root-growing system.
Domaine Dirler-Cadé, 2013 Alsace Grand Cru Kessler ‘Heisse Wanne’ Riesling ($45)
As the estate’s flagship wine, the iconic Heisse-Wanne bottling is from 80-year-old, southwest-facing vines grown on steep terraces at the upper limits of the Kessler, where plowing must be done by horse. Always notably richer than standard Kessler, it is striking for the intensity of the mineral extract and the concentration of Riesling fruit; peach, green apple and lemon peel.
Domaine Weinbach
Named after the little stream which runs through the property, Domaine Weinbach was first planted with vines in the 9th century and established as a winery by Capuchin friars in 1612. After being sold as a national property during the French Revolution, it was acquired by the Faller brothers in 1898, who then left it to their son and nephew, Théo Faller. Following his death in 1979, his wife Colette and daughters Catherine and Laurence continued the family’s passion for great wines until the untimely deaths of Colette and Laurence. Since 2016, Catherine has led the estate winery with her sons, Eddy and Théo.
Domaine Weinbach owns 65 acres of vineyards in the Kaysersberg valley in the Haut-Rhin of Alsace at between 600 and 1300 feet above sea level. Vines are grown organically with a view to quality rather than quantity and grapes. Unlike most producers in Alsace, who purchase from négociants, Weinbach vinifies only estate grown grapes, and their aging philosophy is best described as passive, carried out in huge old oak foudres, a technique they believe allows each climat and each terroir (along with the other unique characteristics of grape and vintage) to shimmer through and produce elegant and sophisticated wines.
Domaine Weinbach, 2020 Alsace Riesling ($35)
Pineapple and ginger on the nose, with grapefruit, peach, pear and cut grass appearing mid-palate along with notes of honeycomb.
Domaine Weinbach ‘Cuvée Théo’, 2019 Alsace Riesling ($39)
Harvested in the granitic sand of the monopole Clos des Capucins, the 2019 ‘Cuvée Théo’ displays a slightly flinty nose and classic Riesling intensity with lychee and mangosteen, lime and crisp Granny Smith apples.
Domaine Weinbach ‘Cuvée Colette’ 2019 Alsace Riesling ($54)
Cuvée Colette comes from a portion of Schlossberg not entitled to Grand Cru status, but has many of the characteristics that elevate the vineyards in this part of Alsace, resulting in a silken, pure and refined wine, fresh with wet stone and the bright bouquet of white peach and lemon, finishing with a spark of salinity.
Grand Cru Schlossberg: “Graceful and Floral, Freshness Drawn From Granite Soil.”
About five miles from Colmar, Schlossberg overlooks the Weiss valley from the outskirts of the town of Kientzheim up to the medieval Kaysersberg castle. The 150-acre Grand Cru sits on very steep hillside. The lieux-dits, therefore, are covered by a succession of terraces between 750 and 1300 feet in altitude, with the majority facing due south on the Bixkoepfel hillside, with a small detached portion looking towards the east.
Schlossberg is solidly Riesling country, with coarse and sandy-clay soil creating a rich surface with a wide diversity of mineral components like potassium, magnesium, fluorine or phosphorus. Combined with low water retention, this is the sort of high-altitude neighborhood in which Riesling can likewise reach great heights.
Domaine Weinbach, 2021 Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg Riesling ($99)
Wild herb and dried citrus zest drive a sensationally crisp wine with hints of mandarin orange, persimmon, jasmine and chamomile. The fruit is ripe and the acidity is vibrant, leading to an intense, long finish flecked with salty minerality.
2021 Domaine Weinbach ‘Cuvée Ste Catherine’ Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg Riesling ($135)
From 60-70-year old vines on the mid-slope of Schlossberg. It was fermented over a full year and stopped at around 5 grams/liter of residual sweetness—rich for the domaine, but with sufficient acidity to carry it off. The nose is ripe with orange blossom and pineapple; the palate shows a bit of smoky reduction framed by the crystallinity of the granitic terroir.
Domaine Albert Mann
According to David Schildknecht of The Wine Advocate, “The Barthelmé brothers, Jacky and Maurice, have maintained their position near the forefront of Alsace viticulture by farming a range of relatively far-flung and outstanding vineyards as well as offering excellent value virtually throughout their range.”
The fifty acres for which the Barthelmé are responsible are highly regarded throughout Alsace. Headquartered in the village of Wettolsheim near Colmar, the spirit animal of the operation is Albert Mann, Maurice’s father-in-law. He was the first to hit upon the idea of using modern production tools without neglecting the constraints of the land and his philosophy was to make wine using the elements of the soil, without the help of fertilizers. The Barthelmé brothers have embraced his beliefs and are now at the forefront of organic/biodynamic Alsace producers. The goal of the estate is to produce wine that is in harmony with nature: “Wine is the memory of the grape and is capable of transmitting the taste of the earth.’
The brothers began practicing biodynamic viticulture in 1997 in three of their Grand Cru vineyards, receiving certification from Biodyvin in 2015. This labor-intensive technique is intended to give the wine the purest reflection of its terroir and own identity. Says Maurice, “In ploughing the vineyards, we encourage the roots to descend to a maximum depth to capture the beneficial mineral elements from degraded rock below. Our holdings are divided up into a myriad of distinct plots, thus ensuring that each wine is reflective of their precise origins, while remaining as complex and multi-faceted as possible.”
The domain owns vines in five separate Grand Cru sites.
Domaine Albert Mann, 2020 Alsace Riesling ($30)
An entry-level Albert Mann by name alone: This 100% Riesling is exhuberant with Mandarin orange, Meyer lemon, Angostura bitters and a firm backbone of minerality.
2019 Domaine Albert Mann Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg Riesling ($88)
A substantial, acid-ripped Riesling that, while exuding youth, is built for the ages. The nose is marked by hawthorn and lime blossom, while on the palate, citrus peel is underlined by a minerality that beautifully expresses the granitic terroir.
Domaine Meyer-Fonné
Félix Meyer is one of those winemakers whom you sense is a star that will grow ever brighter with every vintage. He is the third generation in his family to be making wine since his grandfather founded Meyer-Fonné in the late 19th century and since taking over 1992, Félix has modernized equipment, developed export sales and is currently driving the family’s holdings deeply into the best vineyards of Alsace.
According to Félix, “Our vineyard covers eighteen hectares and seven communes, where the nature of the soils, the relief of the land and levels of exposure are varied. The soils range from poor quality filtering alluvial deposits (Colmar) to rich, deep clayey sandstone land in Riquewihr, with granite in between in Katzenthal, while the relief ranges from the flats of Colmar to the steeply sloping Katzenthal. The degrees of exposure are also very varied, ranging from the cooler western part which is suitable for the earlier vine types to the south-facing part which is very warm and sunny. This great variety of terroirs constitutes a distinctiveness and a richness in relation to many of the French vineyards.”
A stickler for detail with an overriding sense of responsibility, both his family and the earth, he makes his home in Katzenthal, known for its distinctive granite soils. With this remarkable terroir beneath his feet, Meyer has developed a knack for mixing wine from various of his parcels into complex and balanced cuvées. Among his cellar tricks is leaving wine to age on lees in large, older foudres, as was once the tradition in Alsace. All of Meyer’s bottlings are characterized by their stunning aromatics and signature backbone of minerality and electric acidity.
Domaine Meyer-Fonné ‘Vignoble de Katzenthal’, 2017 Alsace Riesling ($27)
From the granite slopes surrounding the Meyer family’s property in Katzenthal, this wine is a blend of grapes planted in 1985 and 2009 in granitic soil with mica and calcareous marl. It is deep, spicy and resinous, and might easily be confused for a Cru wine from the region.
Grand Cru Wineck-Schlossberg: “Fine with Crystalline Structure. Demarcates Between Minerality and Salinity.”
Located in an amphitheater open exclusively to the south, Wineck-Schlossberg is a smallish Grand Cru (67 acres), wonderfully protected from the wind by three hills. The parcels are delimited so that each one of them benefits most favorably from the microclimate; the steep slope is mostly exposed due south with south-east and south-west variations along the small valleys surrounding the Wineck Castle, the feudal ruins that sits in the middle of the vineyard.
The soil is composed of two-mica granite from Turckheim, very weathered, deep ‘grus’—granite weathered down to individual minerals; subsoil belongs to the crystalline-base foundation of the Vosges mountain range.
Riesling does extremely well on these slopes and ripens early here. And why not? It adores granite and likes pebbly and light soils; its rooting system easily ventures deeply into the grus, and can be found from the summit to the mid-slope of the hills.
Domaine Meyer-Fonné, 2016 Alsace Grand Cru Wineck-Schlossberg Riesling ($45)
The crumbly binary mica granite known as ‘de Turckheim’ in the Wineck-Schlossberg Grand Cru gives this wine a pure and delicate with (as suits the winemaker’s name) Meyer lemon and fresh tarragon lacing white peach, grated ginger, lemon curd and stone notes.
Grand Cru Schoenenberg: “Intense Sensation, Which Precedes a Minerality Evoking Warm Pebbles.”
Voltaire owned several acres. The great Swiss mapmaker Merian, mentions it in 1663: “Schoenenbourg is where the most noble wine of this country is produced …”
The locality, with a surface area of 130 acres, sits on terrains of Keuper marl, dolomite rock and gypsum, rich in fertilizing elements which have good water retention. They are covered with fine Quaternary-period layers of Vosges and Muschelkalk sandstone silt-pebbles, resulting in structured, full-bodied wines backed by robust exuberance, with gypsum expressed in smoky, match-stick and flint notes.
Schoenenbourg Grand Cru wines age wonderfully, developing intense and rich aromas. The terroir microclimate is particularly suited for the prestigious Vendanges Tardives and Sélections de Grains Nobles. Schoenenbourg requires patience, and it’s really only after aging for five to seven years that it fully expresses its potential, although it is easily able to preserve it’s mature splendor for years afterward.
Domaine Meyer-Fonné, 2017 Alsace Grand Cru Schoenenberg Riesling ($45)
Only ten cases of Meyer-Fonné Schoenenbourg are imported into the United States every year, so consider the availability a remarkable opportunity. Much like the clay and ‘marne verte de keuper’ marl terroir itself, this wine is weighty stuff. Grapes were gently pressed in a pneumatic press for 4-10 hours, then the must was left for 24-36 hours to allow the heavy lees to settle. It was fermented over three months in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks (with limited use of oak barrels), racked two weeks after fermentation has completed and kept on the fine lees until a September bottling. It is a precise, dry, mineral-focused Riesling combining ripe apple flavors with bright citrus and shows subtle chalk on the finish.
Domaine Albert Boxler
The list of storybook names in Alsace does not always include Domaine Albert Boxler (who produces a scant 5200 cases of wine per year) but it should; there are few serious critics who would take exception to the statement that Jean Boxler, Albert Boxler’s grandson, is responsible for producing some of the most complex and terroir-driven white wines not only in Alsace, but in the world. In an equal blend of nature and nurture, Boxler’s portfolio contains a remarkable roster of racy, intensely structured and very long-lived wines.
The Boxler family’s 32-acre holding is centered around the ancient village of Niedermorschwihr in the Haut-Rhin, dominated by the imposing granite hillside Grand Cru, Sommerberg. “At the conclusion of World War II, my grandfather Albert returned to Niedermorschwihr from Montana, where he had been busy enjoying the natural gifts of Big Sky country.” Jean says. “He was in time to harvest the 1946 crop. He became the first generation to bottle the family’s production himself and commercialize it under a family label—in fact, the wine still wears a label drawn by our cousin. My father Jean-Marc continued the tradition for several decades until passing the baton to me in 1996.”
Jean vinifies micro-parcels separately, de-classifying some into his Réserve wines and producing multiple bottlings of Sommerberg from the different lieux-dits depending on the vintage. Sommerberg Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc are the specialties of the domain, while Boxler also produces one of Alsace’s best Crémants (and Edelzwicker), an incredible Gewürztraminer grown in limestone, and some of the most hauntingly pure Vendanges Tardives and SGNs in all of Alsace. If that weren’t enough, the Boxlers also own land in the powerful Grand Cru Brand, the ultimate counterpart to their holdings in Sommerberg.
“The Sommerberg hillside terminates in my driveway,” Jean laughs, “making it easy to basically live in the vineyards and ensure exceptionally healthy fruit year after year. After harvest, our wines are vinified and aged in old foudres in a small cellar underneath the family home until bottling. Not much has changed over the centuries because not much has needed to.”
Domaine Albert Boxler ‘Réserve’, 2020 Alsace Riesling ($73)
Sourced from the Dudenstein lieu-dit within Sommerberg (because the other two parcels normally added to the Réserve were too low in acidity), the 2020 Riesling Réserve is bright and aromatic with ripe peach and mango intertwined with soft smoke. Slightly piquant in the style of the best Alsace Rieslings, the finish is structured and dense, yet maintains its signature cleanliness on the palate.
Grand Cru Sommerberg: “Delicate Freshness, Which Evolves Toward Roasted and Exotic Notes.”
Sommerberg stretches over the foot of the Trois-Épis mountain to the south of Katzenthal and to the north of Niedermorschwihr. Located on a 45° angle hill oriented directly to the south, Sommerberg covers 69 acres overlooking Niedermorschwihr. The slopes rise steadily to 1310 ft. and so are amongst the steepest in Alsace, rivaling even the severity of the volcanic hillside of the Rangen Grand Cru.
The Sommerberg hillside is composed of mica-rich granite with the upper layers in an advanced state of decomposition. As a result, the topsoils contain a high proportion of granitic sand, rich in minerals not found in most other Alsace vineyards. It also receives only about 21 inches of rain a year, making it among the driest sites in the northern half of Frane.
Domaine Albert Boxler, 2020 Alsace Grand Cru Sommerberg Riesling ($99)
The granitic soils of Sommerberg are further shaped within the wine by allowing the élevage time to develop in well-seasoned foudres. The wine, with the potential to become even better over the years, shows perfectly ripe fruit rife with the beautifully flinty and herbal terroir notes of the super-steep vineyard.
Domaine Albert Boxler, 2020 Alsace Grand Cru Sommerberg ‘Eckberg’ Riesling ($117)
From 45-year-old vines in a steep mid-slope lieu-dit in the geographic center of the Sommerberg, the Eckberg parcel is vinified separately by Boxler only in exceptional years; 2020 certainly qualifies. The wine boasts vivacious acidity combined with saline undertones that set off apricot, citrus, wet rock, honeycomb and freshly-cut jasmine.
Domaine Mann
After stints in Côte-Rôtie and Champagne, where he learned the value of biodynamics from Bertrand Gautherot, Sébastien Mann has been making wine at the family estate since 2009, taking over from his father. He says, “I think that thanks to biodynamics, we have succeeded in bringing an additional element to our vines. My father made wines essentially linked to the earth; I have a much more holistic style, linked to the stars.”
Domaine Mann’s 32 acres were founded upon the theory that in order to produce terroir-driven wines with aging potential, legally allowable yields have to be cut in half. From the outset, the estate produced 35 cuvées, one for each parcel.
“The style of the wines changed very quickly when I came on board,” Sébastien maintains. “95% of the wines we produce now are dry. It was not an easy task, since Alsace is one of the warmest and driest regions in France. Grapes can easily ripen with a high sugar level. I don’t think my father could imagine that with biodynamics we would be able to achieve such a great evolution, achieving phenolic maturity while making dry wines.”
Grand Cru Pfersigberg: “Sensation of Density Without Loosing Minerality .”
Straddling the communes of Eguisheim and Wettolsheim, Pfersigberg is one of four Grand Crus which run in a line just to the south-west of Colmar. The third-largest Alsace Grand Cru, at 184 acres, it also is a land of gentle slopes, unlike the nearly unmanageable vineyards of Zinnkoepfle and Rangen.
Pfersigberg soils are predominantly composed of limestone and marlstone, with a higher quantity of clay than is usual this far away from the river basin. This clay reduces the drainage efficiency of the local soils. The Cru is noted for the concentration of Gewürztraminer, although Pfersigberg wines may also be produced from Riesling, Pinot Gris or Muscat.
Domaine Mann, 2018 Alsace Riesling Grand Cru Pfersigberg ($69)
A near perfect representation of Alsace Grand Cru Riesling with a number of years under its belt showing the evolution of tertiary flavors (honey, beeswax and petroleum) while retaining gentle reminders of the freshness of youth—pear, plum, white peach, infused with gentle notes of chamomile.
Domaine Schoffit
To call a man a ‘pioneer’ who cultivates wine country that has been famous for eight hundred years (vintage 1228 was described as ‘extremely good; so hot you could fry an egg in the sand’) may seem a stretch, but the spirit that impelled Bernard Schoffit to purchase 16 acres around Clos St. Théobold belongs to a frontiersman. Previously abandoned because the slopes were deemed too steep to work, the vines in question (in Rangen de Thann AOP) grew on a plot of soil that has been likened to Montrachet and Chambertin. And from this forbidding site, relying on extremely low yields, he is making extraordinary wine with each cépage.
In addition, Schoffit raises grapes in the lieu-dit Harth, an alluvial terroir close to the commercial area of Hussen in northern Colmar, and three acres in the granitic Grand Cru Sommerberg to the south of Katzenthal and to the north of Niedermorschwihr. In Harth, Schoffit tends 80 years old Chasselas vines, of which a few percent are replanted each year as an illustration of Schoffit’s long-term perspective.
Based near Colmar, Bernard took the winery over from his father Robert and his son Alexandre is now a co-owner. Demonstrating the estate’s commitment to sustainable agriculture Alexandre maintains, “All our vineyards are organic, and we also started to work biodynamic a few years ago. In order to show more transparency, I decided in 2016 to launch the official certification process, but for administrative reasons it was stretched over different years. The first wines officially labeled fully organic will be some cuvées of the 2019 vintage (Harth Riesling and Harth Pinot Gris for example), and the rest of the classic range will follow in the 2020 vintage. For the Grand Crus, it will be from the 2022 vintage. The official certification for biodynamic is in progress and we are still waiting to know from when we will be able to use it on the labels. But for now, Domaine Schoffit gives the assurance that we are both bio and biodynamic!”
Grand Cru Rangen: “Mineralized Volcanic Soils Produce Aromas Marked by Smokiness.”
Volcanic upheaval is the name of the game at inconspicuous hillside adjacent to the town of Thann, making it a geological anomaly in the Vosges Mountains. But there even more bang for that buck—while ploughing Rangen acres that had been abandoned for multiple generations, Olivier Humbrecht (Domaine Zind-Humbrecht) uncovered three unexploded bombs from World War II. Dotting the eastern slopes of the Vosges Mountains and is notable for more than just its terroir: Rangen is the only site in Alsace to be classified as Grand Cru in its entirety, and is home to the highly respected Clos Saint Urbain and Clos Saint Théobald vineyards.
In Rangen, the altitude climbs higher (1100 to 1525 feet) and the slopes have an average gradient of 60%. It is predominantly planted to Pinot Gris, the variety that accounts for 57% of vines; Riesling represents about a third of the site while Gewürztraminer is 10%. Despite its southerly aspect, Rangen is late-ripening, mainly due to its higher rainfall and cool winds which also make the site more prone to botrytis and its attendant Sélection de Grains Nobles and/or Vendanges Tardives sweet wines.
The late-ripening terroir also increases power (and often alcohol) in the wines. Wines from Rangen are often described as having a ‘smoky’ taste.
Domaine Schoffit, 2019 Alsace Grand Cru Rangen ‘Clos Saint-Théobald’ Riesling ($60)
Clos Saint-Théobald sits to the east of Clos Saint Urbain and is, like Urbain, a monopole owned entirely by Domaine Schoffit. One wine pro described it this way: “The vineyards of Clos Saint-Théobald are aggressively steep and the footing is treacherous with loose rocks and dry, sandy soils slide constantly, threatening to send you tumbling down the hillside. The Schoffits will warn you: If you fall, don’t damage the grapes.”
The wine shows the bite of fresh pineapple with smoke and floral notes. But it is the minerality that stands out and gives the wine an intensely salty finale.
Domaine Valentin Zusslin
Aligned with the same winemaking traditions it first established in 1691, Zusslin is located in the southern part of Alsace in Orschwir on the Bollenberg, Clos Liebenberg (a Zusslin monopole) and the hillsides of Pfingstberg Grand Cru.
Early to the Crémant game, the domain was also an early practitioner of biodynamics, having introduced this philosophy to viticulture in 1997. Says Valentin (whose name, perhaps, makes this an iconic sparkling wine for February 14): “We plant cover crops to encourage good insects and microbial life for the soil, encourage bees to pollinate the beneficial plants and we grow trees to attract the birds that eat the harmful bugs. This way of thinking carries through everything we do in the fields and in the winery.”
In addition, his wife Marie insists that their lifestyle goes far beyond a philosophy, and as evidence, she indicates the wall on the property that bears names of 13 generations of Zusslin winegrowers: “We represent not only history, but the circle of life.”
‘Lieu-dit’ Identity: Geographical Detail
As in Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, an Alsatian lieu-dit is a specific part of a vineyard or region recognized for a unique topographic or historical specificity. They are often a smaller part of a named Climat, and are generally used as a microscope that accentuates a particular quality. When you see a lieu-dit mentioned on a wine label (and can distinguish it from a proprietary winemaker name for the bottling), it has genuine meaning.
However, unlike Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, in Alsace Grand Cru AOPs, the listing of the lieu-dit is mandatory and the Grand Cru designation may be used only if a lieu-dit is also indicated. (Lieux-dits may also be indicated on regular Alsace AOP wines, but is not mandatory.)
Domaine Valentin Zusslin, 2018 Alsace ‘Bollenberg Neuberg’ Riesling ($51)
Bollenberg is one such lieu-dit. Located on a hill near Rouffach and the Domaine Valentin Zusslin’s home village of Orschwir, it’s one of the driest places in France with only about 15 inches of annual rainfall. The vineyard sits on 23 million year old limestone, lending a salty base to the wines produced here. 2018 Riesling is a complex and evolving example of the Zusslin’s imperative of terroir-reflection. It shows star-anise, lemongrass, and emerging notes of butter and honey.
Domaine Valentin Zusslin, 2016 Alsace ‘Clos Liebenberg’ Monopole Riesling ($51)
Clos Liebenberg represents a group of plots of almost ten acres atop the Pfingstberg hill. A Zusslin monopole, Clos Liebenberg is a southeast-facing vineyard surrounded by wild hedges, stone walls and forest, the highest property owned by the winery. Surrounding forest helps to retain moisture and keeps temperatures lower than nearby terroirs. Clos Liebenberg wines display a tension and a elegance typical of cool sandstone terroirs; the 2016 is, at this point, wonderfully mature with intense iodine and chalk, a slightly reductive nose that expresses Mirabelle peach and quince, with a long saline finish.
Domaine Christophe Lindenlaub
It’s no surprise that Christophe Lindenlaub has gone the winemaking route: His family has been growing grapes in the northern Alsace town of Dorlisheim for over 200 years. But he brings a slightly new approach to the sorting table: Over the past decade, he has worked diligently to convert the family’s 30 acres into organic viticulture and the cellar to the production of zero-additive wines.
“Our vineyards consist mainly of clay and limestone soil, some with a sandstone sub-layer, with vines mostly aged between 30 and 60 years,” Christophe explains. “My focus has been to harness the true potential of our sites by moving away from chemical intervention in the vineyard and cellar, and I use primarily stainless steel for élevage as a means to further define the freshness and precision in the wines.”
Christophe Lindenlaub ‘En Équilibre’, 2021 Alsace Riesling ($35)
100% Riesling from vines grown at 700 feet in a south/southeast-facing vineyard. The grapes are hand-harvested, cold soaked and direct-pressed into stainless steel tanks, then aged sur-lie for eight months in stainless steel. It is bottled without sulfur, and without fining or filtration, giving it a smoky richness.
The wine shows a clean spine of acidity highlighted by flavors of green apple, Anjou pears, lemon peel and green tea, brightened by a hint of petrol.
Clime and Riesling: Mountainous Northern Catalunya Makes The Grape Its Own
At first pass, Spain and Riesling may seem like unlikely bedfellows; under the tyranny of a warming planet, Spain has undergone a series of recent, record-breaking heat waves, with temperatures into triple digits by May—green kryptonite to a variety that thrives best in the cool summers of northern Europe.
Elevation is proving to be the saving grace, and the most delicious irony in changing weather patterns is that regions once considered too cold for vines are warming to the point that they can produce quality wines. In Catalunya, vineyards at the foothills of the Pyrenees are being planted at altitudes up to 4,000 feet. Twenty-five years ago, this would have been impossible, but formerly inhospitable areas are beginning to slip into vineyard Goldilocks Zones.
Castell d’Encus, Talarn, Lleida
At higher elevations, peak temperatures are not necessarily much cooler, but intense heat lasts for shorter periods and nighttime temperatures are colder than at lower altitudes. This increased diurnal shift (the temperature swing over the course of a day) helps grapes to ripen at a more even pace, over a longer period of time, than where temperatures remain relatively stable.
Pushing altitudes creates a unique set of challenges, of course: Soils, particularly on slopes, are generally poorer, water is scarcer and unexpected weather events like frosts and hailstorms are always a threat. But struggle is Riesling’s trumpet call, and in Catalunya, this unlikely new union is producing wines where the quality is as high as the altitude.
Castell d’Encus
Higher Grounds
“Our philosophy is that of an organic vineyard, without herbicides, insecticides or fungicides that are not included in organic practices.” – Raül Bobet
Raül Bobet
Above all, Castell d’Encus is an experiment, and one that has been approached with all the precision and insight of a research scientist. The goal, from the outset, was to discover the methodology behind reflective, subtle, non-explosive and low-alcohol wines with aging potential at an altitude where even the old-time winemakers claimed that grapes could not thrive.
But the grand experiment has a more ecological edge, and according to Bobet, “It was vital to us to pair an excellence in mountain winemaking with environmental protection. We want to channel new actions to increase biodiversity and create awareness as an example that everyone can get involved in taking care of the Earth. From our situation, we carry out actions in order to reduce the human impact on the land, the vineyard and the environment, without using herbicides or fungicides. We take advantage of the force of gravity and geothermal energy for certain tasks in the winery.”
Castell d’Encus ‘Ekam’, 2020 Costers-del-Segre ‘Pallars Jussà’ ($45)
85% Riesling and 15% Albariño sourced from a cool, southwest-facing plot in the Pallars Jussà comarca, located between the Lleida Plain and the Pyrenees. Ekam means ‘divine unity’ in Sanskrit and offers an intense bouquet of kiwi, grapefruit, peach and ripe green apple and light kerosene notes which will develop and mature with age. Fermented in 2500 and 5000-liter tanks at low temperature, it is ‘trocken’, or dry. 2250 cases made.
Notebook …
Sugar: The Word That Cannot Speak Its Name
In Alsace, sugar has bedeviled winemakers and consumers for eons, although new regulations might be a little sugar to help the medicine go down.
According to Marc Hugel (Hugel & Fils): “When I first started in the trade 35 years ago, most of our wines contained three grams of sugar per liter or less. Now, most have more. I think there is correlation between our move toward sweet wines and low prices.”
Although dry wines is the purported goal of winemakers to meet a demand for food wine, warmer weather patterns have pushed ripeness, forcing producers to leave residual sugar to keep alcohol levels in check. Extra sugar can also hide; four grams per liter can seem bone dry with high enough acid levels. Another factor is that as wine ages, it tastes less sweet on the palate, a phenomenon that even Marc Hugel can’t explain. “Sometimes I leave residual sugar to keep alcohol moderate, but upon release six or seven years later, it tastes dry.”
The Grand Crus were defined at a time when getting to ripeness was problematic, so they are generally the sites that achieve greatest ripeness, often south-facing hillsides. An outdated regulation requires potential alcohol to reach 10% at harvest, but today it’s more of a problem to restrain alcohol. Even the most committed producers admit that it’s mostly impossible to get completely dry Pinot Gris or Gewürztraminer from Grand Cru sites: “Pinot Gris ripens very rapidly. Sometimes you say you harvest in the morning and it’s dry, you harvest in the afternoon and it’s sweet,” says Étienne Sipp (Louis Sipp). Marc Hugel adds, “Gewürztraminer will reach 13-14% when Riesling gets to 11%. It’s better to have 14% alcohol and 7 g/l sugar than 15% alcohol and bone dry.” Céline Meyer (Domaine Josmeyer) says, “If Gewürztraminer is completely dry it’s not agreeable because it’s too bitter.”
Now, a standardized sweetness guide will be required on all labels of AOP Alsace beginning with wines produced from the 2021 harvest. One option is for labels to contain a visual scale with sweetness levels and an arrow clearly pointing to one specific level. Slightly more information is available in the second option, a designation on each bottle of either Dry (sec): sugar content does not exceed 4 g/l; Medium-Dry (demi-sec): sugar content 4 g/l and 12 g/l; Mellow (moelleux): sugar content of the wine is between 12 g/l and 45 g/l and Sweet (doux): sugar content of the wine exceeds 45 g/l.
- - -
Posted on 2024.06.27 in France, Wine-Aid Packages, Alsace, Costers del Segre | Read more...
Featured Wines
- Notebook: A’Boudt Town
- Saturday Sips Wines
- Saturday Sips Review Club
- The Champagne Society
- Wine-Aid Packages
Wine Regions
Grape Varieties
Aglianico, Albarín Blanco, Albillo, Aleatico, Alicante Bouschet, Aligote, Altesse, Aubun, Auxerrois, Barbarossa, Beaune, Biancu Gentile, Bonarda, bourboulenc, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Caino, Caladoc, Carignan, Chablis, Chardonnay, Chasselas, Chenin Blanc, Cinsault, Cortese, Corvina, Corvinone, Cot, Counoise, Dolcetto, Ferrol, Fiano, Frappato, Friulano, Fumin, Gamay, Garganega, Garnacha, Garnacha Tintorera, Godello, Graciano, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Grolleau, Groppello, Jacquère, Lambrusco, Lladoner Pelut, Macabou, Maconnais, Malbec, Malvasia, Malvasia Nera, Marcelan, Melon de Bourgogne, Mencía, Merlot, Mondeuse, Montepulciano, Montònega, Morescola, Morescono, Mourv, Mourvèdre, Muscadelle, Muscat, Nebbiolo, Nero d'Avola, Niellucciu, Pecorino, Pedro Ximénez, Persan, Petit Verdot, Pinot Auxerrois, Pouilly Fuisse, Pouilly Loche, Poulsard, Prieto Picudo, Riesling, Rondinella, Rose, Rousanne, Roussanne, Sagrantino, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Savignin, Sciacarellu, Souson, Sylvaner, Syrah, Tannat, Teroldego, Timorasso, Trebbiano, Treixadura, Trousseau, vaccarèse, Viognier, ViuraWines & Events by Date
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
