Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot Gris Sonnenglanz, Alsace Grand Cru, France

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Bott’s 2009 Pinot Gris Sonnenglanz comes off as decidedly sweet, which fits its rather confectionary elements of marzipan and nougat as well as its almost mushy peach and musk melon over-ripeness. Flatteringly silken in texture, it finishes undeniably luscious if unfocussed and dominated by its sweetness. Plan on indulging in this sooner rather than later. “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

Overripe pear and musk melon allied to distilled pit fruit esters and citrus oils in the nose of Bott’s 2008 Pinot Gris Sonnenglanz make for one of the more wildly colorful and nose hair-raising aromatic displays of its vintage. A Riesling-like stream of fresh citrus juice meets nut paste, decadent melon, and honey-glazed, overripe pit fruits on an expansive yet bright palate, leading to a finish in which smoke and spice overlay citrus and pit fruits and this wine’s high residual sugar is reduced to merely slightly-sweet status. Here is one of several Bott-Geyl wines of its vintage to sock away in the cellar for a few years before revisiting ? assuming, that is, that you enjoy a bit of a risk. “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

Bott’s 2005 Pinot Gris Sonnenglanz is formidably smoky in the nose and concentrated in citrus and pit fruit flavors on the palate. It seems to fit his stated ideal: a wine of unusually high, ripe acidity and low pH; restrained in sweetness and not alcoholically out of balance; pithy and obviously concentrated. Now, if it were just more fun to drink ... ! An oily texture goes hand-in-hand with faint peach kernel bitterness, and the finish here needs to unclench. Bott is convinced it has more potential than the Furstentum, but I don’t feel confident to predict. (Bott’s concentrated but rather graceless 2005 Gewurztraminer Les Elements – ostensibly his “basic” bottling – was picked ten days before the grand cru sites and still ended up well over 14% alcohol and leaving behind 50 grams of residual sugar, which has to leave one wondering whether these sites are a boon or a curse!) Young Jean-Christophe Bott is passionate about quality and unafraid to make sacrifices on its behalf. He has adopted a biodynamic regimen in the vineyards and is now holding most of his wines 6-24 months in bottle before release. Clarity and cleanliness run through all of these, and it is encouraging to taste so many Riesling that are uncompromisingly dry (although occasionally bitterness or alcohol intrude). Bott feels capable of encouraging dryness and balance in various ways in the vineyard and the cellar without ever intervening in or attempting to re-start sluggish fermentations. By no means all of the wines I tasted displayed strong personalities, but many of them gave reason to believe – as does Bott’s articulate advocacy – that this will be one of the more talked-about Alsace domains of the coming decade. Given the challenges that so many of his fellow-growers recorded with this variety in 2004, his success in bringing Gewurztraminer to subtly-ennobled ripeness in that vintage – while taking advantage of higher than usual acidities – is especially noteworthy.Importer: Eric Solomon Selections, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565