Domaine Bott-Geyl Riesling Grafenreben de Zellenberg, Alsace, France

點擊次數(shù)：5666

While the generic and Burgreben bottlings from this vintage were a bit lacking in definition to merit more than mild recommendation, Bott’s 2009 Riesling Grafenreben was not only more focused, it displayed a surprisingly tart citricity for its vintage, allied to piquancy of fruit pit and smoky, fusil aura of crushed stone. While I am surprised this doesn’t taste riper given its vintage, I am happy for the trade-off in order to secure focus and an invigorating finish. I don’t know that I would hold this for more than a few years, even though it would no doubt “l(fā)ive” much longer. “For me it was not a classic year for V.T. or S.G.N.,” says Jean-Christophe Bott of 2009. “There was very little botrytis, and when we started picking it was with the aim to make the best possible normal range. I found most of the Gewurztraminer very aromatic and fruity, but soft and lacking the depth of their sites; too much on the varietal side, so I preferred to mostly declassify, and also because in 2008 we had a great vintage whose wines really taste of their sites.” My judgment on 2008 is qualified. Detached tartness and decidedly fungal overtones suggest that in some instances fruit had to be harvested lest it succumb to botrytis. A measure of that fungal advance is that the nobly sweet wines in the present collection are enormously high in sugar and quite strongly marked by botrytis, yet represent the product of picking entire blocks rather than bunch-selection.Various importers, including Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559 1040 and Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620