Initially, the acidity shoots through this wine. Then it reveals equally intense honey and spice flavors. The wine is complex, with yellow fruits laced with nutmeg and finished with a tender, crisp aftertaste. It is never too sweet, a beautifully balanced wine in which all the elements play their part. ——R.V.(12/1/2011)—— 95

On paper, the Zind-Humbrecht 2008 Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardive differs significantly from its 2009 counterpart only in harboring such high acidity. And indeed, it tastes drier than do a couple of this year’s non-V.T. Gewurztraminer or this year’s Pinot Gris V.V. Dried peach, orange zest, leather, and a prickle of horseradish in the nose lead into an almost severely-concentrated and wince-inducingly bright palate saturated with fresh lemon and orange and laced with faintly bitter zest and sharp horseradish. Hints of lanolin and spice from oak add another dimension that – like the wine’s sheer citricity and dried fruit character – needs time to integrate. This finishes with blazing, eye-watering brightness and limb-twitching electricity. I’m not sure what one should swallow to calm down after experiencing it – I personally had to forge on to taste S.G.N.s. Give this at least half a dozen years in bottle for it to calm down; then, figure it will be worth following for at least another 20. (The corresponding Jebsal S.G.N. is a so-called “trie speciale” that was not even done fermenting when I visited last November.)Tasting the Zind-Humbrecht collections armed with what one knows of these vintages from most other establishments, both the 2008s and 2009s will harbor surprises. A number of 2008s are ornery in finished acidity, and some are more marked by botrytis than most other exemplars of their vintage from top addresses, this occasionally taking the form of fungal notes and piquancy that some tasters may find off-putting. The 2008 harvest began here already on September 23, lasting exactly one month. Selectivity in October – especially with Pinot Gris – consisted, explained Humbrecht, more in the careful removal of healthy bunches to insure some dry wines, with the remaining crop being left until later, the opposite of what more usually happens and at many other top-quality Alsace (or German) estates – notwithstanding the literal meaning of the expression “vendange tardive.” “Gewurztraminer was the last to ripen,” notes Humbrecht, and presumably for that reason grape sugars were very high by the time he picked, making for a collection nearly all of which exhibits V.T.-like sweetness. “It was almost easier and more sensible to make S.G.N. this vintage than V.T.,” remarks Humbrecht by way of explaining why he rendered six of the former and only one 2008 wine in the latter category. “If there had been pressure to harvest,” he notes, “then we would have had V.T.s instead.” The majority of 2008 Rieslings – as well as the Pinot Blanc and two Muscats – were not bottled until February, 2010 on account of their high acidity and/or sluggish fermentations. But most of those wines underwent malo and finished dry or virtually so. (The yeasts and beneficial bacteria may have found it tough working in such a low pH medium, but – eventually – they succeeded.) Yet even in early-harvested instances, Humbrecht says that the proportion of malic acidity – which thereafter diminished – was never higher than one-third. Most of the 2008 vintage Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer, even including the S.G.N.s, were bottled already in September, 2009.The surprise on tasting the Zind-Humbrecht 2009s is an entirely pleasant one. The exceptional expressiveness of so many of these wines – even if Olivier Humbrecht admits that “they aren’t always perfectly precise or pure” – is surely in large part a tribute to vineyard management that permitted such a substantial portion of so large a crop to be picked unusually early, yet expressively ripe, although, a few sites succumbed to fortunately noble rot. Among practices to which Humbrecht points as relevant to his 2009 quality is his elimination in recent years of vine hedging to achieve earlier and more uniform flavor ripeness without excess grape sugar. Instead, his crew now lets the tips grow and then laboriously ties or tucks them back into the canopy, an approach for which fellow-proponent of biodynamics Lalou Bize-Leroy has become well-known. Against a background in vintage 2009 of wines that fermented rapidly for most growers, Humbrecht explains that this was the case for many of his, too; but some that had stopped with significant residual sugar over the winter began fermenting again in early summer of last year, a few not finishing until autumn and thus missing the main bottling session that takes place here each September. When I visited the domaine last November, Riesling Windsbuhl; multiple Rieslings from Turckheim including two Brands; and the Jebsal Pinot Gris S.G.N. were not ready to be assessed. Those who (like me) have harbored reservations about noticeably high alcohol in certain recent Zind-Humbrecht wines will be delighted to find 2009s that have in that respect also beaten the vintage odds, though to be sure, sometimes at the price of high residual sugar. With minor exceptions, retail prices have dropped for Zind-Humbrecht wines, in some instances significantly. Add to this an expanded range of generic cuvees and the Humbrechts’ willingness to declassify fruit from many outstanding sites (which helps account for the 2009 collection’s – relatively! – reduced number of bottlings), and most consumers can afford to enjoy – indeed, really have no excuse for remaining strangers to – at least some of these much-talked about and often iconic wines.Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491-4724

With the Humbrechts’ 2007 Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardive we enter the realm of decidedly lower alcohol (around 11%) and higher sugar (around 100 grams). Mandarins, banana, pineapple, mint, sage flower, gardenia, and heliotrope soar from the glass, then converge on a creamy, practically weightless palate, with caramelized mirabelle, grapefruit, and peach preserves adding to the litany. Thanks to a lively sense of citrus juiciness throughout – and no doubt also to high extract – the glorious finish of this buoyant elixir is not in the least cloying. No doubt it could be happily revisited over the next 30 years.”After the experience of 2003,” remarks Olivier Humbrecht with an eye to his 2007s, “I’m never going to complain about having and extra gram or two of acidity.” In fact, Humbrecht considers 2007 ideal in nearly every respect, having permitted the grower the luxury of picking under optimum conditions for each grape variety and style. The fruit was completely healthy, insists Humbrecht, “you could walk through the vineyards for half an hour and fine one spoiled berry,” … except, of course, where the rot was noble! This year’s generally dry-tasting, relatively low-alcohol, high acid, high-extract Rieslings are not always the most youthfully approachable or winsome in style, but the best are profound; whereas Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer ran to extremities of potential alcohol, even though the harvest was finished before mid-October. Far fewer wines went through malo-lactic transformation here from 2007 than usual – the pHs were often so low they proved inhospitable to the necessary bacteria. As for 2006, it’s clear that this is a year to test the meddle of any grower, and it is therefore not surprising that Zind-Humbrecht was among the estates to demonstrate that excellence and even excitement were not ruled out by the weather. Furthermore, he arrived at an average 2006 yield virtually identical to that of 2005. “Of course,” asserts Humbrecht, “quality in 2006 depended on how you handle your vineyards and your vines the whole year through. It was a vintage where, if you made a mistake in the vineyards, you got slapped pretty hard at harvest time, unlike 2007 where if you made a mistake, nature was forgiving.” The completion of fermentations in 2007 was spread over even more months than usual, often with late bottling; frequently with no racking; and my notes are based both on tastings from bottle early this year (sometimes referencing the wine’s performance from cask) and in a few instances solely on tastings from cask. Two 2007 Pinot Gris “Trie Speciale” – from Clos Windsbuhl and Clos Jebsal – were not even wine yet last I visited, and will in any case not be released for at least another year.Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491-4724