The Dirlers’ 2009 Gewurztraminer Kessler Vendange Tardive puts me in mind of sweetened black tea such as is popular in the southern U.S., mingled with herbal lozenges that harbor just enough bitterness to help offset the wine’s sheer sucrosity. Certainly the finish is sustained, though you will need to have a sweet tooth to relish it. As with the range of Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer this year chez Dirler, one notes the tendency for relatively warm and generally outstanding sites to have forced growers’ hands and ended up being picked before the real phenolic typicity of Traminer had been achieved, but already at extremely elevated must weights. As usual chez Dirler, I was forced during my most recent visit to take a slightly abbreviated tour of the two most recent collections on account of this family’s sheer multitude of bottlings, but it is clear from their 2008s that this remains one of the most frequently exciting – and generally consistent – sources of wine in Alsace, making it unfortunate that one doesn’t see Dirler-Cade wines more often in the U.S. Moreover, this is an estate that’s rendering highly distinctive; often deliciously unorthodox; but never fashion-pandering innovations while retaining a clear and constant vision of how the classic cepages of Alsace should perform in sites that can boast some of the longest – not to mention most-deserved – reputations of any in their region. All this having been noted, 2009 was a challenge even here: sometimes well-met, but seldom entirely surmounted. Rieslings were being harvested as early as mid-September, and Jean Dirler observes that had he cut back the crop on his Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer rather than allowing bunches to remain abundant, he would really have had a problem with sky-high potential alcohol. (For more on the Dirlers’ sites and methods, consult my reports on earlier vintages.)Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185

Dirler-Cade's 2006 Gewurztraminer Kessler Vendange Tardive one of only four Gewurztraminer bottlings (two of them V.T.) that they rendered this vintage, the others of which I did not taste. Quince preserves, overripe musk melon, celery root, and sea-breeze mineral notes on the nose lead to a richly-textured palate with impingement of toasted nuts and brown spices as well as saline and alkaline hints offering some counterpoint to the soothing, caramel-tinged flow of ripe fruit. This shows admirable clarity, lift, and elegance, but the finish is rather dominated by sheer sweetness from its 72 grams of residual sugar. I would monitor it carefully if keeping any around, but could conceive of it becoming more interesting over the next 3-5 years.Jean-Pierre Dirler was another of those growers to express delight at the 2007 vintage with its wide window of harvest opportunities, but to have sold off or declassified much of his family's production in 2006. It bears repeating that this estate's international profile is not nearly as high as is the quality of wine that have issued from it routinely since at least the mid-1980s, when I first visited here. I did not, unfortunately, have chance to taste quite the entire 2007 Dirler-Cade collection, and canvassed only a small selection of their in any event diminished number of 2006s.Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185

Harvested en bloc (not selectively) from the Heisse Wanne, the 2004 Riesling Kessler Vendange Tardive smells of peaches, honey, malt, lily, and candied lemon rind, hints of peach pit bitterness and citrus zest offering counterpoint to the peachy, honeyed waves of fruit that caress the taster’s palate, but engendering a slightly sweet-sour overall impression that will probably knit with time. Clear, pure, polished, and refined, it comes off today as slightly understated alongside the Dirlers’ 2005 renditions of Riesling from this site. So enormous is the range of wines nowadays grown at the combined Dirler and Cade domaine that I did not have the time to taste them all. (All of those I did taste are at least mentioned in the text.) Along with the involvement of the new generation – Jean Dirler and his wife Ludivine (nee Cade) – the entire domaine has been farmed biodynamically since 1998 (and parts of the Kessler and Kitterle with horse), a factor the family thinks especially beneficial given the climatic extremes that have prevailed in recent years. Riesling and Pinot Gris are generally fermented in foudre here, and other whites usually in tank. Very few families of Alsace wine have exhibited long-term the consistent quality and age-ability one can expect of those bottled under the Dirler name.Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185