Smoky black tea, smoked meat and urchin roe in the nose of the Barthelmes’ 2010 Pinot Gris Rosenberg call to mind the intrigue shown by many of the best Alsace wines of this vintage and cepage. Their counterparts inflect a juicily peachy, subtly creamy palate, leading to a finish surprisingly revealing of an almost tannic grip, and with its succulently fruited and exotically carnal elements tinged with alkalinity. This ought to prove useful through at least 2017. The Barthelmes were out picking Riesling already very soon after mid-September of 2011, and as Jacky Barthelme relates and the bottled results testify, “the skins were already ripe by then. And we picked one lot at only 12% potential alcohol. The vines were under no stress this year so their ripening cycle was finished early.” He adds that the vines weren’t hedged during the summer, an approach that is gaining support among growers internationally, not to mention support from the results I have tasted. Light pressing in small lots and minimal settling were parts of the crush regimen that may have helped in achieving some of the most refined, elegant, texturally alluring Rieslings I witnessed from this vintage. In some instances, the Mann 2010s were harvested at higher must weights than their 2011s, a function at least in part of low yields coupled with the need to let the fruit hang to moderate acidity and achieve ripe flavors. Despite the usual profusion of nobly sweet bottlings at this address, there happened to be only a single wine from either vintage that the Barthelmes chose to declare as V.T. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800