Philippe Blanck relates that his father planted the vines that inform the 2007 Riesling Furstentum in these Marne chalk soils on the recommendation of Etienne Sauzet. A glorious display of white peach, yellow cherry, freesia, and fresh lime runs from the nose through a luscious palate that positively shimmers with chalky, saline, somehow crystalline mineral inflections, and into a finish perfectly supported by its residual sugar, and with counterpoint offered by notes of toasted nuts, lime peel, and tactile chalk dust. This soothing yet refreshing, cleansing yet clinging Riesling should be worth following for 15 or more years, but do not neglect it in its youth, either (provided the Blancks will relent and release it sooner than they had intended!). You’d never guess that this site had been ravaged in late Spring by some of the worst hail Philippe Blanck says he has ever witnessed. Frederic and Philippe Blanck are among the wine world’s – hardly just Alsace’s or France’s – truly late-releasers, and Philippe opines that their 2007s – which he compares with the 2001s – will need especially long to show their best. That noted, I found the wines highly expressive at age one year, and the domaine did a more than credible job of 2006, too. Perhaps a bit paradoxically in light of their pleas for cellar maturation, the Blancks are moving increasingly toward the use of screwcap closure, and Philippe Blanck says that when he goes back and tastes the first wines he bottled this way – from vintages 2001 and 2002 – he is delighted with their evolution, or perhaps, in fact, their freshness and relative lack of evolution. (For an isolated comparison under cork and screwcap, see my tasting note on the Blancks’ 2006 Schlossberg Riesling.) This is one of several addresses where a tendency to revert to drier bottlings can be observed, for more about which consult my tasting notes on the Blancks’ 2007 Pinot Gris and on their 2006 and 2007 Gewurztraminer crus. Note that I was not able to taste the entire Blanck line-up from either of the vintages under consideration. In particular, there were two 2007 V.T.s I missed through an unfortunate accident in which dozens of fruit flies met their end inside the previously opened bottles before they reached me!Imported by: Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300 and by The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL; tel. (561) 998 0029

Mushroom, yellow cherry, faded lily, and rose petal in the nose of Blancks’ 2006 Riesling Furstentum follow on a lush, creamy palate, where nutty and toasted nut piquancy and chalk help offer counterpoint, with residual sugar being supportive of the wine’s sweetly perfumed personality. The plan is not to even release this before late 2011, but I can’t see the point in that approach as the wine tastes to me ready to roll and unlikely to support more than a few more years of cellaring. Frederic and Philippe Blanck are among the wine world’s – hardly just Alsace’s or France’s – truly late-releasers, and Philippe opines that their 2007s – which he compares with the 2001s – will need especially long to show their best. That noted, I found the wines highly expressive at age one year, and the domaine did a more than credible job of 2006, too. Perhaps a bit paradoxically in light of their pleas for cellar maturation, the Blancks are moving increasingly toward the use of screwcap closure, and Philippe Blanck says that when he goes back and tastes the first wines he bottled this way – from vintages 2001 and 2002 – he is delighted with their evolution, or perhaps, in fact, their freshness and relative lack of evolution. (For an isolated comparison under cork and screwcap, see my tasting note on the Blancks’ 2006 Schlossberg Riesling.) This is one of several addresses where a tendency to revert to drier bottlings can be observed, for more about which consult my tasting notes on the Blancks’ 2007 Pinot Gris and on their 2006 and 2007 Gewurztraminer crus. Note that I was not able to taste the entire Blanck line-up from either of the vintages under consideration. In particular, there were two 2007 V.T.s I missed through an unfortunate accident in which dozens of fruit flies met their end inside the previously opened bottles before they reached me!Imported by: Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300 and by The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL; tel. (561) 998 0029

The Blanck 2005 Riesling Furstentum smells of sage, oregano, peach, and chalk dust. Chalk and cherry pit flavors offer an attractively bitter counterpoint to luscious ripe peach fruit on the palate, and this satin-textured wine finishes bitter-sweet, chalky, low-key, but satisfyingly long and generously juicy.Frederic and Philippe Blanck are among the most determined late-releasers, so that even from 2004 the top wines are only now appearing in the market, and I tasted nowhere near all of this domaine’s abundant cuvees from 2005 and 2004. Frederic Blanck is eloquent in his expressions of traditionalism and viticultural idealism. I applaud the number of classically dry yet elegant and even delicate Rieslings he renders. (He says he cannot sell a truly dry-tasting Pinot Gris in France nowadays). But I must say I did not always find a vinous concentration concomitant with his idealism, particularly when it came to the numerous (and certainly ready-to-drink) 2002s that are still for sale.Imported by: Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300 and by The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL; tel. (561) 998 0029.