Like the 2003, the 2001 Gewurztraminer Comtes d’Eguisheim favors the mysteriously musky, animal, as well as marine, mineral sides of this variety. The lush, enveloping texture, wafting sweet florality, and clarity of fruit on display here are in another league for sheer sex appeal from the 2003, not to mention food compatibility. Leaving behind seven grams of residual sugar seems to have been ideal for this wine, as the long, marine, mineral-inflected, positively bracing, citrus-tinged finish is still dry-tasting but there is a clarity and lift that probably could not have been achievable at a higher level of alcohol. Only a couple of hundred cases of this cuvee were essayed from 2001, but every last bottle is worth the proverbial ransacking of the marketplace and two or three decades of cellaring.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.
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