Domaine Bott-Geyl Riesling Schoenenbourg, Alsace Grand Cru, France

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A strikingly maritime nose in Bott’s 2011 Riesling Schoenenbourg anticipates the alkaline and saline inflections that follow on a palate featuring juicy fresh orange, apple and honeydew, further tinged with the bitterness of their pips and rinds. Struck flint and crushed stone add to the already fascinating array of mineral-like characteristics in a long and interactive finish. A dozen grams of residual sugar are supportively and discreetly integrated. This should prove well-worth following through at last 2022. Jean-Christophe Bott harvested most of the way through October of 2010, not picking Schoenenbourg and Mandelberg Rieslings until near the end of that month, and with excellent results. Quite a bit of grand cru Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer (including all of his Furstentum) was declassified into generics. By contrast, Bott’s Rieslings were picked by the first days of October in 2011. Interestingly, with two exceptions, they finished dry-tasting (and the non-crus analytically dry) without Bott having had to encourage their spontaneous fermentation through warming or yeasting. Incidentally, the Bott-Geyl acreage and portfolio will be expanding with fruit from very old vines in Sporen as well as an additional parcel in Furstentum, due to come on line from vintages 2012 and 2013 respectively. Various importers, including Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559-1040 and Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620

Fusel and crushed stone notes, musky narcissus perfume, and fresh, zesty lime and orange rind mingle in the nose of Bott-Geyl’s 2010 Riesling Schoenenbourg, then complexly and piquantly inform a subtly oily palate. There is a honeyed aura to this performance, too, even though what little residual sugar is present serves to support the citrus flavors without engendering any overt sweetness. There are admirable clarity and primary juiciness to this wine’s impressively persistent finish, featuring a different but equally welcome fruit-stone interplay from that found in the corresponding Schlossberg. Bott reports that there was only a blush of botrytis on this fruit, and any effects are discreetly woven in. I would expect this to be worth following through at least 2025. Jean-Christophe Bott harvested most of the way through October of 2010, not picking Schoenenbourg and Mandelberg Rieslings until near the end of that month, and with excellent results. Quite a bit of grand cru Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer (including all of his Furstentum) was declassified into generics. By contrast, Bott’s Rieslings were picked by the first days of October in 2011. Interestingly, with two exceptions, they finished dry-tasting (and the non-crus analytically dry) without Bott having had to encourage their spontaneous fermentation through warming or yeasting. Incidentally, the Bott-Geyl acreage and portfolio will be expanding with fruit from very old vines in Sporen as well as an additional parcel in Furstentum, due to come on line from vintages 2012 and 2013 respectively. Various importers, including Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559-1040 and Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620

Site-typically fusil notes in the nose of Bott-Geyl’s 2009 Riesling Schoenenbourg mingle with lime and tangerine that lend a brightness and vivacity to the palate wholly atypical of the vintage. Salt, iodine, and shrimp shell reduction, allied to zesty citrus piquancy, make for an invigorating and mouthwatering finish. This is relatively lean – even given flatteringly high glycerin – and not conspicuously ripely-fruited for a 2009, but in its energetic, treble way, it is generous (or, at the very least, brash) by the standards of youthful Schoenenbourg. It should be worth following for ten or a dozen years. (Picked even before his basic Riesling in order to head-off one of the rare outbreaks of botrytis he experienced in this vintage, a Bott 2009 Riesling Mandelberg seems to have suffered on both counts.) “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 2008 Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenbourg is excellent now and ready to drink for the next 15+ years. It has an intense fruit, a very good concentration and a compact structure with a long and salty finish.

Follow this for at least ten or a dozen years. Bott’s 2008 Riesling Schoenenbourg offers smoky, fusil notes along with sage raw hazelnut and walnut for an intensely pungent, piquant nose such as one has come to expect from young Schoenenbourg Riesling, especially in a high-acid, cool vintage. That piquancy and pungency runs all the way through a matrix of tart but invigoratingly and refreshingly juicy white peach, lime, and gooseberry, to the gripping, near tooth-jarring finish. Peach kernel and chalk add further complexity but do nothing to alleviate the tendency toward austerity. This impressive Riesling deserves at least 4-5 years of bottle age and ought to drink well for at least a dozen. Whether it will merit yet longer-term cellaring will depend on how much one values whatever more user-friendly traits emerge during its first decade. “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