Domaine Bott Geyl Gewurztraminer Sonnenglanz Selection de Grains Nobles, Alsace Grand Cru, France

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Peach jam, litchi, caramel, overripe musk melon, and glazed pineapple scent the nose and slather the palate of Bott-Geyl 2008 Gewurztraminer Sonnenglanz Selection de Grains Nobles, which at 200 grams residual sugar is even more confectionary than its Schloesselreben counterpart. Yet, as one quickly learns in dealing with residually sweet wines, the fact that there is so much more sugar and analytically only a bit more acidity does not tell the story when it comes to balance and taste. Not only is there a ravishing delicacy thanks to a mere 10.7% alcohol, there is also – compared with the Schloesselreben – a more exuberant expression of that mysterious wellspring of vivacious fresh fruit that comes to the rescue of the best nobly sweet S.G.N.s before they go over the top. Hints of white truffle and candied citrus rind add further allure to this polished and surprisingly elegant elixir. Here’s an instance where I could imagine this lasting long enough – perhaps a quarter century or more – to achieve a new and equally harmonious orbit with a diminished sense of sweetness.“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

The 2005 Gewurztraminer Sonnenglanz Selection de Grains Nobles offers a more truffly, noble note of fungus in the nose than its Pinot Gris counterpart, along with candied lemon and orange zest, wood smoke, honey, litchi, and an impressive distillation of sweet floral essences. Here is a wine that succeeds in spite of its sweetness, possessing a veritable whiplash of bright citrus in the finish that is almost unheard of with this variety and that eliminates any threat that this formidably viscous wine might become ponderous or cloying. Undeniably though, this is rather sweet-sour, with honey and caramel on the one hand and lemony citricity on the other, a bifurcation that I suspect will be resolved over time. One certainly need not fear forgetting it in the cellar for twenty or more years.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