The 2007 Riesling Vignoble d’E – Ostertag’s basic bottling, from vines around Epfig – smells Muscat-like of lemon and tangerine rind with sage. Combining palpable density and tactile bitter-sweet citrus oil pungency, this finishes with a smoky, sizzling, slightly numbing effect but thankfully with just enough refreshing juiciness as well. I would drink this frisky, aggressively-concentrated Riesling over the next couple of years. I did not have occasion to taste the 2006 rendition of this cuvee. Andre Ostertag was like most of his region’s best growers very selective about what he chose to bottle in 2006. He is especially enthusiastic about his uncompromisingly intense 2007s and the sense in which the Rieslings resemble a throwback to the moderate must weights and refreshing acidity that was common in Alsace before the string of warm vintages that has been nearly uninterrupted since 1988. I was surprised to find myself as impresses as I was with the 2007 Pinot Gris bottlings here, but Ostertag says it was simply unfair until very recently to compare his results with that grape to those with Riesling, because the vines of the former were too young. They’ve passed 20 years of age now, and that, he opines, is why they can start to show their real potential (and, I would add, stand up to Ostertag’s use of barriques). While I hate to take up space with this matter, readers should be aware that wines from this estate that formerly bore the village name “Epfig” will now merely be coded with the capital letter “E” because of certain limitations that the authorities have now imposed on the use of village designates and the definition of “village level” names. (Frankly, I wouldn’t even want to understand the regulation if I thought it would prove intelligible!)Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524
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