2022 Domaine Barmès-Buecher, Riesling, Rosenberg, Vin d’Alsace, France.
I always love tasting the wines of Barmès-Buecher, who are one of my favorite producers in Alsace, joining Domaine Weinbach and Marcel Deiss, and this Rosenberg cru Riesling is an absolutely beautiful wine with pretty aromatics, a bright straw/gold hue in the glass and a smooth lush medium body on the palate. The nose is full of bright orange blossoms, stony notes and delicate rosewater leading to classic layering of lime, apple, quince and golden fig fruits, along with a striking minerallity, a touch of tropical lychee, clove and cardamom spice, flinty wet stone and spearmint. This dry, but lush and saline infused Riesling begs for food, I’d love to enjoy this one with cracked crab or grilled lobster tail, though it would be lovely too with ham and cheese, such is the flexible nature of this wine. According to the winery, due to its north/northeast orientation of the Rosenberg vineyard Riesling cru gets a more lengthy maturation on the vine, this adds to the brilliance of detail, complexity and elegance, as seen here. The Rosenberg slopes sit on clay, limestone, flint and chalk, which adds to the depth of flavors and very much influence the personalities of the Riesling wines made from here. These Barmès-Buecher bottlings, imported by Sacred Thirst Imports, are extremely well crafted wines that are pretty rare, but well worth the chase to find, adding to the rewarding feeling when you catch one.
The Domaine Barmès Buecher, originally founded in 1985, which is pretty recent history in this region, is a small family owned Alsace estate located in the town of Wettolsheim, which has some 16 hectares across the prime crus of Wettolsheim, Wintzenheim, Turckheim and Eguisheim. This highly regarded domaine is run by Geneviève Barmè, and along with her children Sophie and Maxime, who farm Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat, Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Auxerrois and Chardonnay with all biodynamic practices. Barmès-Buecher has a collection of massale (clones) selections in their organic vines, and along with a careful attention to yields they see a dynamic quality of fruit, and with what the winery says is minimal intervention in the cellar, results in a range of wines that truly transmit the specific terroirs with transparency. For the Rosenberg Riesling, the grapes are all hand harvest with carefully selected clusters in the vineyard and in the winery with a gentile pressing over 12 hours before fermentation exclusively in stainless steel vat. This wine was made without malolactic conversion and was aged 9 to 12 months in a combination of 50% stainless steel and 50% used oak cask, with works well to promote exceptional balance. This winery is most noted for the poise and subtle expression of fruit and this Rosenberg Riesling hits that mark almost perfectly. I highly recommend searching out these Barmès-Buecher wines, with eye for their Rieslings, as well as their Pinot Blanc, which I also tasted, and their Crémant d’Alsace Brut Zero sparkling.
($38 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive