A Muscat-like amalgam of lemon, sage, and boxwood on the nose of Dirler’s 2008 Riesling Belzbrunnen – from a site nearly at the convergence of the three grand crus – anticipates the wine’s bracing palate performance, with a refreshing melon and lemon matrix capped by a pungent, smoky, faintly fusil notes and a positively shimmering sense of stony, alkaline and crystalline mineral-and-citrus interplay. This should prove deliciously versatile over the next 7-10 years. 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

The 2007 Riesling Belzbrunnen offers a delightful nose and lusciously refreshing yet well-stuffed palate of lime, grapefruit, white peach, and fresh fig, with pronounced acidity, citrus oils, and salinity making for a finish of Pavlovian irresistibility. Enjoy this over the next 5-7 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