Scents of lightly-baked apple and mirabelle distillate on the nose of the Beyer 2009 Riesling Comtes d’Eguisheim have their pip- and pit-tinged counterparts on a voluminous, subtly oily palate, with just enough fresh primary juiciness retained to lend the finish – which also evinces wet stone – some sense of refreshment. This is not the first very ripe, low-acid vintage in which it has struck me that the best available material might have been sacrificed to render an Ecaillers cuvee of adequate refreshment and minerality, thus leaving the Comtes d’Eguisheim a bit flat-footed. But Beyer insists that for the most part, as usual, the two bottlings rely on different parts of the site, this one on deeper, clay-rich soil. This might “l(fā)ive” for a dozen or more years, but I would be inclined to drink it over the next 6-8. Even in 2003, Marc Beyer and his team rendered a collection true to their domaine’s principles of dryness, acid-retention, and mineral expression, while for the most part avoiding alcoholic overload or flat-footedness. So I wasn’t surprised that they considered 2009 child’s play by comparison and fielded an often excellent if variable collection. “It was a vintage where you really had to wait,” says Marc Beyer of 2008, “but the fruit kept its acidity; eventually the maturity came up to over 13 (% natural alcohol); and the wines achieved a perfect balance.” Certainly the best of them did, at least. With their tendency to express volatile esters; their often big-boned and angular architecture; and their unapologetic absence of residual sugar, Beyer wines may well strike many of today’s oenophiles and writers as an anachronism, whereas for others of us, they are like a part of the profoundly beautiful village landscapes of Alsace to which we repeatedly return with a sense of comforting familiarity and the knowledge that their slow evolution will be as reliable as their adherence to a traditional style. But that is not meant to suggest that surprises are precluded, and in fact in both 2009 and 2008 there are a number of Beyer wines the likes of which I have difficulty recalling from this address or any other.Imported by Aveniu (A.V.) Brands, Baltimore, MD; tel. (410) 884-9463

Coming – as is characteristic for this cuvee – from deeper less overtly calcareous soils in the Pfersigberg than those that inform Beyer’s Ecaillers cuvee, the 2005 Riesling Comtes d’Eguisheim exudes honey, plum and cherry with their pits, and oranges. Lush and silken, at once dense and honeyed, this promising and imposing young Riesling is somewhat 2001-like in personality. Long, lush, quite powerful and faintly warm in finish, it needs two or three years in bottle, which it will get before it is even released. Marc Beyer continues to uphold traditions of dry-tasting wine (even the very occasional Vendange Tardive bottling here is generally only subtly sweet) and late-release. This is not an Alsace address that seems to have received much fanfare in the English language press in recent years, but I find the wines to have been constant in their quality over my 22 years of acquaintance. Indeed, I would not hesitate in describing the best of them as “classic,” while recognizing that others might say “retro.” Beyer is particularly happy with his 2005s, comparing them to the 1990s for their combination of richness and acidity. But a large part of the pleasure in buying wines from this address lies in accessing more mature vintages, and now is a last chance to snap up Beyer’s outstanding renditions of vintages 2002 and 2001. As some of Beyer’s rare nobly sweet wines going back a decade are still in the marketplace, and as these wines have never been reviewed by me nor in the pages of the Wine Advocate, I take the liberty of noting that the creamy, subtly smoky 1997 Pinot Gris S.G.N. (92 points) is a wonderful exercise in restraint yet complexity for its genre; the explosively rich 1998 Gewurztraminer S.G.N. (94 points) displays uncanny freshness and lift as well as merely subtle sweetness for all of its 110 grams residual sugar and honeyed, candied fruit, and herbal liqueur character; and the 1998 Gewurztraminer S.G.N. Quintessence (95 points) – a silken herbal-, floral-, citric-, caramelized liqueur-of-a-wine – displays phenomenal elegance and vivacity that utterly belie its viscosity.Imported by: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400 and HB Wine Merchants, New York, NY; tel. (917) 402 0456.