Bott-Geyl’s 2009 Pinot Gris Les Elements is one of those wines of its vintage that manages to succeed by emphasizing purity and sweet simplicity of ripe fruit, in this instance generous pear and peach on a polished, silken palate, and with just enough primary juiciness for its sorbet-like though only subtly sweet, spicy finish to refresh. Hints of toasted, sugared almond add allure, even if not a greater sense of varietal typicity. Enjoy this over the next couple of years while it is freshest, although it will probably hold 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

Roasted peanut and sauteed mushrooms – a combination found in more than one of Bott’s wine of this vintage, not only in Pinot Gris, and at times to excess – scent his 2008 Pinot Gris Les Elements, then migrate to a flatteringly (and, for the vintage, surprisingly) creamy palate. Fresh peach rushes in to lend this some sense of refreshment and ripeness of fruit, underlain by 25 grams of residual sugar that taste like a lot less. Bott says there were indeed some botrytized and shriveled berries in the mix. The unusual combination of flavors on display could render this particularly interesting to experiment with at table, though I would plan for safety’s sake to do that within the next 2-3 years. “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