The 2004 Muscat d’Alsace Spiegel smells of orange and grapefruit rind, coffee, mint, and peach kernel. Overtly dense and a bit less expressive at this youthful stage than the corresponding Saering (behavior typical for Muscat in this clay-rich site), it offers impressive richness and glycerol slickness of texture, finishing with hints of citrus zest, fruit pit, coffee, and herbal bitterness as well as chalk. Revisit this in another 12-18 months. So enormous is the range of wines nowadays grown at the combined Dirler and Cade domaine that I did not have the time to taste them all. (All of those I did taste are at least mentioned in the text.) Along with the involvement of the new generation – Jean Dirler and his wife Ludivine (nee Cade) – the entire domaine has been farmed biodynamically since 1998 (and parts of the Kessler and Kitterle with horse), a factor the family thinks especially beneficial given the climatic extremes that have prevailed in recent years. Riesling and Pinot Gris are generally fermented in foudre here, and other whites usually in tank. Very few families of Alsace wine have exhibited long-term the consistent quality and age-ability one can expect of those bottled under the Dirler name.Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185