Albert Boxler Pinot Blanc Reserve, Alsace, France

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The 2013 Pinot Blanc Réserve (or B like Brand in Europe) is 100% Pinot Blanc from the Brand Grand Cru, and was fermented in foudres and bottled in August 2014. Very precise and discreet in its white fruit and flower aromas that are intertwined with lemon flavors, the wine reveals a nice intensity and depth on the nose. Medium to full-bodied, this is a quite complex and minerally structured wine that is still restrained and young, and packed with nice tannins without loosing its clear and crystalline structure. The finish is long and tension-filled, but also very fine and mineral.

While Boxler's regular 2011 Pinot Blanc - a blend of Auxerrois and true Pinot Blanc that nowadays counts as classic - is simply apple-y, faintly milky, and a bit awkwardly sweet, the Boxler 2011 Pinot Blanc Reserve - 100% genuine Pinot Blanc grown in upper elevations of the Brand - offers considerably more interest. Already in the nose, salt spray mingles with fresh apple and sweet corn, anticipating the dynamic that dominates on a rich, satiny, but in no way heavy palate, and persists into a nut oil-tinged and at once satisfyingly soothing as well as stimulating finish. I would plan to enjoy this by 2016. "I picked all of my grand cru Riesling at the beginning of the 2011 harvest," relates Jean Boxler, "because it was already ripe and I did not want to lose purity or acidity, or to gain alcohol, and I wanted to make the wines as dry as reasonably possible. Normally, letting Riesling hang longer is the right thing, but not in this vintage, as what little I picked later demonstrated. Especially in granite soils, maturation was very rapid. In 2010, by contrast, I picked as late as I possibly could and performed no deacidification. The quality of the acids just kept improving and my foliage was still green through October." Muscat in 2011, incidentally, Boxler says of a grape with which his estate often scores memorably, "got Oechsle but simply lacked fruit," and he blended it away. Like me, Boxler deems his 2010s to be in a different class than his 2011s. "Maybe 2010 will be a bit difficult in its youth for some consumers to appreciate, but for the professional ..." he utters a sigh indicating rapture, and after tasting his collection I know what he meant! While hectoliter per hectare yields in 2010 averaged only in the low twenties, Boxler held onto the reserves he had set aside for the U.S., even as he elected to change importers, so that both his 2010s and his 2011s were shipped after the middle of 2013. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

The Boxler 2010 Pinot Blanc Reserve - a pure genuine Pinot Blanc from Brand that gets labeled with a capital "B" in its home market - offers a superb example of this variety's underappreciated potential to, among other things, combine subtle creaminess of texture with the vivacity and dynamic fruit-mineral exchange of a Riesling. Scents of gentian and apple blossom, sweet corn and oregano usher-in a palate brimming with fresh apple and lime mingled with pungent corn shoots, green herbs, and sea water. Lush and silken, yet at the same time brightly animated, this brings irresistible saliva-inducement to a gripping finish of captivating, energetic interaction between fruit, herb, liquefied floral perfume, and crystalline mineral impingements, sea salt and iodine. This terrific value is likely to be well-worth employing at table through 2020, if not beyond. "I picked all of my grand cru Riesling at the beginning of the 2011 harvest," relates Jean Boxler, "because it was already ripe and I did not want to lose purity or acidity, or to gain alcohol, and I wanted to make the wines as dry as reasonably possible. Normally, letting Riesling hang longer is the right thing, but not in this vintage, as what little I picked later demonstrated. Especially in granite soils, maturation was very rapid. In 2010, by contrast, I picked as late as I possibly could and performed no deacidification. The quality of the acids just kept improving and my foliage was still green through October." Muscat in 2011, incidentally, Boxler says of a grape with which his estate often scores memorably, "got Oechsle but simply lacked fruit," and he blended it away. Like me, Boxler deems his 2010s to be in a different class than his 2011s. "Maybe 2010 will be a bit difficult in its youth for some consumers to appreciate, but for the professional ..." he utters a sigh indicating rapture, and after tasting his collection I know what he meant! While hectoliter per hectare yields in 2010 averaged only in the low twenties, Boxler held onto the reserves he had set aside for the U.S., even as he elected to change importers, so that both his 2010s and his 2011s were shipped after the middle of 2013. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

The Boxlers’ 2009 Pinot Blanc Reserve – “true” Pinot Blanc from the Brand – is scented with musk, raw hazelnut, and overripe pear and apricot, which reprise on an expansive, plush palate. For whatever reason, this fails to capture the purity or juiciness of finish that is to be found in the corresponding Sylvaner. The varietally-typical creaminess is absent, too; although, a lick of salt and note of fruit pit lend a welcome sense of finishing invigoration. Plan on drinking this within the next 3-4 years. Jean Boxler relates that in 2009 he picked some parcels of young wines early due to stress, then sold off the juice; and any under 15 years’ age he didn’t even bother to pick. Eventually, when he harvested his older vines and best sites, the sugar levels were the same – but not the flavors. He deftly charted a course with most of the resulting wines between alcohol and residual sugar, but to the extent it was unavoidable, sinned on the side of sweetness. From 2008, almost predictably given the track record at this address, Boxler rendered sharply focused, minerally complex, yet seductively fruit-filled wines that should prove excellent both as keepers and as partners with cuisine. Boxler compares these wines with his 2002s and finds then “definitely more interesting than the 2001s.” While most of the 2008s finished fermenting already by Christmas – which is par for the course chez Boxler – he points out that several of the extraordinary wines from the Brand lingered into spring. (For some detail on among other things Boxler’s different Riesling parcels, see my report in issue 188.)Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185

The Boxlers’ 2008 Pinot Blanc Reserve offers another example of Riesling-like acidity and mineral character accruing in this vintage to a non-Riesling, although this wine is pure “true” Pinot from the Brand, unblended with the always much lower-acid and nowadays far more prevalent Auxerrois. Raw hazelnut, apple, and lemon on a refreshing, subtly silken palate take on some of the same shimmering sense of mineral interaction as in this year’s Boxler Sylvaner, and a lick of salt adds mouthwatering persistence while a faint, alluring note of white truffle emerges with air to hover over the entire performance. This is apt to display potential that most Alsace wine lovers don’t realize Pinot Blanc has in it. And although pure Pinot Blanc (as opposed to Auxerrois blends) is nowadays rare in Alsace, examples from Austria and Germany can also mature slowly and beautifully. I would urge giving this one a chance to show what it can offer for each of the next 6-8 years. Jean Boxler relates that in 2009 he picked some parcels of young wines early due to stress, then sold off the juice; and any under 15 years’ age he didn’t even bother to pick. Eventually, when he harvested his older vines and best sites, the sugar levels were the same – but not the flavors. He deftly charted a course with most of the resulting wines between alcohol and residual sugar, but to the extent it was unavoidable, sinned on the side of sweetness. From 2008, almost predictably given the track record at this address, Boxler rendered sharply focused, minerally complex, yet seductively fruit-filled wines that should prove excellent both as keepers and as partners with cuisine. Boxler compares these wines with his 2002s and finds then “definitely more interesting than the 2001s.” While most of the 2008s finished fermenting already by Christmas – which is par for the course chez Boxler – he points out that several of the extraordinary wines from the Brand lingered into spring. (For some detail on among other things Boxler’s different Riesling parcels, see my report in issue 188.) Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185