With a striking carnality and richness, the Dirler-Cade 2005 Pinot Gris Reserve offers both veal stock and foie gras character, together with musky animal scents, pure, peachy fruit, glossy texture, subtle, honeyed sweetness, and distinctive mineral ore-like pungency. This long-finishing wine holds out the prospects of some decidedly kinky pleasure for any who play around with it over the next several 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

The Dirlers’ 2004 Pinot Gris Reserve smells typically if simply of peaches and smoke, suggests chicken and veal stock in its carnal richness, and possesses imposing creaminess of texture, yet also unusually clear, vivacious peachy fruit (and dryness!) for this variety. It will drink nicely over the next several years but has no pretensions to age worthiness.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