2015 Domaine Weinbach, Riesling, Schlossberg Grand Cru, Kaysersberg, Alsace, France.
The wonderfully dry and stylishly delicate Domaine Weinbach Grand Cru Schlossberg Riesling gains a rich palate with air, but remains beautifully detailed, crisply focused and feels heavenly light in the mouth. This beauty will evolve and fill out over the next few years in bottle, it surprises for it’s youthful elegance in such a warm and seemingly concentrated vintage, terroir class really shines through here, Ghislain Berthiot, enologist, and by Celestino Soares, vineyard manager, have done a masterful job of guiding this wine to this stage, starting with biodynamic farming and careful and studied winemaking from selected sites with in Schlossberg, the region’s first Grand Cru vineyard, the grapes are hand harvested, whole cluster pressed, with 24 hour must soaks, native yeast fermentations and the use of large oval neutral casks, making for soulful and gloriously pure wines as this one certainly is. The granite soil of Schlossberg’s hills shows through with it’s flinty mineralite and laser like focus and graceful lines, with seductive apricot, verbena/lemon, kumquat, white plum and juicy lime fruits as well as wet river rock, peach and chamomile tea, subtle leesy notes, bright almond, tangy herbs and pretty floral elements with lingering rosewater and zest tangerine. Look for this pale gold hued dry Riesling to gain a bit of curvy weight, though not flab in time, this should age with stellar results. Even though it’s great now, this is a wine that will reward patience, it will have a long window of fantastic drinking, best from 2020 to 2029. Domaine Weinbach and Faller family continue to craft masterpieces from their Clos des Capuchins estate which was originally found way back in 1612 by local monks, now led by Catherine and her son Theo, after a few tragedies for the family, including the loss of Catherine’s mother Colette and sister and winemaker Laurence in recent years, the future looks good for this world class Domaine, don’t miss these awesome 2015’s!
($46 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive