Located on a cold and high-altitude valley, the Clos Saint Urbain vineyard at Domaine Zind Humbrecht is a picturesque landscape.
When have the wines of Alsace been as strong as they are today? Our recent tastings at the cellars of the restaurant Villa René Lalique, which is close to the Lalique factory where the 100 Points Universal Glasses by James Suckling are made, showed an even stronger selection of wines than just one year ago. This was particularly the case for the dry whites from the riesling grape — the most widely planted variety in the region — and the medium-dry to frankly sweet whites made from gewurztraminer — the grape variety that Alsace is best known for. And in all other categories, the wines showed about as well as they did the previous year. That’s great news for the region at the eastern edge of France!
This situation has a lot to do with the excellence of the 2016 vintage. The 2016 Alsace wines have great balance and clarity combined with more than enough concentration and depth. “We really like the quality of 2016,” said Veronique Mure of the Muré Estate in Rouffach. “They don’t have the volume of 2015, but they have the elegance, and we think that’s more important.” We agreed that, in Alsace, bigger doesn’t always mean better. For us, the 2016 vintage seems almost ideal for the region.
Of course, the string of 2016 wines we rated 95 points or higher, such as the elegant and polished Muré Riesling Alsace Clos Saint Landelin 2016 that we rated 96 points, have earned their share of the limelight. However, the slew of modestly priced dry whites and wines that we rated more than 90 points all deserve to be taken just as seriously. Alsace offers some amazing value wines, and many drinkers have yet to realize that. Now is the time to do so!
But let me go back to that rhetorical question I started this tasting report with and try to answer it properly, as this will help explain what has changed in Alsace during the last years and allowed the region to create such wonderful wines. Alsace was certainly not anywhere near this powerful a decade ago. I think, in fact, you’ll have to look back to the 1980s to find it performing impressively.
Our contributing editor Stuart Pigott has the impression that the 2016 is more elegant, which suggests that the wines will age more gracefully. However, the very top 2015s are also wines with long aging potential.
Recently, at a private tasting, I was able to taste a row of dry rieslings from the excellent 1983 vintage. I was impressed not only by their power and harmony but also by the fact that they were still very much alive and most were delicious. The other striking thing about those wines was how they were all properly dry, in line with the region’s wine traditions.
Back then, the neighboring Germany’s performance in dry whites was abysmal compared to those of present days. And the Alsace winemakers rightly accused their German colleagues of often using sweetness to mask weaknesses in their wines. Likewise, the competition posed by the dry white wines of the Loire — which is broadly compared with those of Alsace because almost all of them lack oak aromas and flavors — was not nearly as strong as it is today. The number of good dry whites from Bordeaux and the Rhone was also limited compared to now. In the 1980s of France, in terms of dry whites, only Burgundy was clearly ahead of Alsace.
It was the ambivalent attitude to the region’s tradition for dry wines that many Alsace winemakers adopted in the early 1990s which derailed the train. The problem was the way it became increasingly difficult for consumers to recognize how dry or sweet Alsace wines were from the label. And what’s worse is that previously Alsace whites, such as the generic riesling, pinot blanc and sylvaner, were no-brainer restaurant wines. However, they frequently became slightly sweet, seriously impacting their food friendliness.
Rieslings are rocking again! In 2017, our Wine of the Year in Alsace was one of the best dry rieslings we’ve ever tasted. This year’s selection of rieslings did not disappoint as well.
This was also the moment when the Alsace grand cru appellations for single-vineyard wines from the region were introduced; this is limited to wines made from gewurztraminer, muscat, pinot gris and riesling, and now, also the blends that are dominated by these grapes. They were significantly more expansive than the generics, and the consumer uncertainty about how they really tasted meant that this golden opportunity for the region to upgrade its image backfired. For many wine drinkers, Alsace grand cru became a synonym for the no-man’s land between properly dry and forthrightly sweet; historically, a tough market niche.
Some producers never made that mistake. For instance, the Trimbach Estate in Ribeauville, who are the makers of the classic Alsace single-vineyard dry riesling Clos Ste. Hune. It was never marketed as a grand cru despite the fact that it comes from the grand cru Rosacker site. However, those exceptions were not numerous enough to prevent the region from losing ground in some markets and prestige just about everywhere.
The situation was made worse by the innovative New World whites, such as California chardonnays and New Zealand sauvignon blancs, that marched forward in many markets in the 1990s. Not only did they occupy a lot of store shelf space and restaurant wine listings, they also grabbed the high ground of consumer interest and esteem. This further eroded Alsace’s standing as a smart choice for the dinner table; in other words, a sad development considering how close the lighter Alsace dry whites are at being the ideal multi-purpose wines!
Early this century, these problems had gotten so bad that many Alsace winemakers realized things had to change big time. Since then, the leaders of the pack have worked hard to improve the balance of their wines, making sure consumers know exactly what they will get in the bottle. As a result, nearly all the good and great Alsace rieslings are properly dry wines boasting crisp and refreshing acidity today. And it makes you wonder, where is that piece of salmon or roast chicken when you’re enjoying a glass of Alsace riesling. More importantly for us, the sweetness of the generic pinot gris was also shunted down into the dry to medium-dry range last year. Now, these wines taste brighter and less mouth-fillingly rich, making them more food friendly.
There is a Rangen revolution here. Schoffit has been making great Alsace wines for a long time, but we found that his 2016 riesling, pinot gris and gewurztraminer from the grand cru Rangen to be his best ever!
We believe that this major step back in the direction of the region’s dry wine tradition is positive because of the warming climate of Alsace tends to give wines a generous amount of body and moderate acidity. The summers are hotter than those in Burgundy, and Alsace is one of the driest places in France! A high-end single-vineyard dry riesling from the region is therefore always rather full-bodied, and those from sites with chalky soils tend to be quite muscular too. As a result of that, even a hint of sweetness would taste quite obvious. This is even more so in high-end pinot gris and gewurztraminer as they are more opulent and softer than rieslings.
The skill of mastering the special balance of these wines and precisely matching it with strikingly original aromas and flavors is what makes producers, such as Albert Mann, Ostertag, Weinbach and Zind Humbrecht, the stars of Alsace. This is, of course, reflected in the scores we have given their wines. At Zind Humbrecht, 2016 looks to be the best vintage ever for winemaker Olivier Humbrecht as the wines are a happy marriage of great concentration and precisely delineated flavors.
“In the past, we, in Alsace, often made the mistake of harvesting too late,” Olivier Humbrecht told us, “I, too, made that mistake. In 2016, we started in mid-September and continued into the first week of November. The long period of dry weather meant that we were able to get the right picking date for each vineyard.” Unlike in 2017 when spring frost decimated the yields, the quantities for most wines in 2016 was good too.
We also believe that the drier balance and moderate body of the new Alsace whites really help their “terroir” character shine through. Today, this is rightly the key concept for great wines of Alsace. In no other French winegrowing region is there a comparable geological complexity to Alsace. You really taste that in the Alsace grand cru wines. Furthermore, the prices for most of them are moderate compared to those in Burgundy, or with the single-vineyard dry GG wines from across the border in Germany.
One thing that didn’t change over the last decades is the way Alsace often shines in the dessert wine category. Our highest-rated wine was the very limited-production Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris Alsace Altenbourg Quintessence de Grains Nobles 2008, which was rated perfect 100 points. It tastes like liquid tarte tatin but remains diamond-bright, making it as exciting as anything Sauternes in Bordeaux or Vouvray in the Loire has to offer. — Contributing Editor Stuart Pigott
