Licorice and horehound are strikingly prominent on the nose and palate of Dirler-Cade's 2007 Gewurztraminer Spiegel, along with rose petal perfume and celery root. The bittersweet alternation of flavors and the low-toned character of this voluminous bottling no doubt owe much to its 14.5% alcohol, although its long, polished finish evinces no heat. The overall impression is sweet, but to have dropped lower than the 35 grams of residual sugar present here would have meant playing with fire, and these days, every ripe vintage in Alsace (and which vintage hasn't been ripe?) is replete with example of those who succeed at 15+% and those who (or at least, whose customers palate-s) get burned. This may well become more interesting with time, and I imagine it could keep well for a decade or more. 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

The 2004 Gewurztraminer Spiegel smells of honey, malt, plum paste, mint, and roses. Voluminous, with billowing inner-mouth florality, and not at all weighty, this subtly creamy-textured Gewurztraminer lays down long, soothing, multi-layered traces combining floral and herbal essences, nut oils, honey, malt, vanilla, and subtle mineral salts. This is another polished, refined, complex yet soft-spoken and gentle triumph for the Dirlers, a Gewurztraminer whose 36 grams of residual sugar are well-integrated, that never forgets its fundamental duty to refresh, and that can certainly be enjoyed over at least the next 10-12 years. 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