Alsace: New releases and specificities

France Alsace

Alsace

New releases
and specificities

Perle Noire by Arthur Metz, Grands Chais de France

Grands Chais de France has been founded in 1979 by Alsatian Joseph Helfrich, a real seer! This patriarch has met success as he was the first to market varietal wines. He leans on 1,450 ha of vineyards all over France, out of which 35 ha in Alsace. The house Arthur Metz, acquired by the group in 1991, innovated in the end of the year with the marketing of a Crémant d’Alsace, Perle Noire, treated like a jewel, made with a single varietal from the Auxerre region, “a cousin of Pinot Blanc”, Anne-Laure Helfrich, product manager, confides.
This cuvee, vinified according to the tradition with two fermentations, a bottle fermentation, a low dosage (6 g/l), and a 24-month ageing on the laths, unveils a complex aromatic range with scents of ripe fruits (peach, apricot), a nose full of freshness and a very round palate. This Crémant is delectable but innovative also through its packaging which reminds the codes of Champagne.
It has been awarded a gold me­dal at the competition for the Best Sparkling Wines in the World. It is presented in a brilliant black Champagne bottle. Its label is round like a halo and is adorned with a gleaming pearl whose brilliance is obtained thanks to a holographic varnish. Its name Perle Noire is written out in puff ink, and the other mentions use the matt-gloss con­trast. Affordable luxury for a drink or a meal.

www.arthurmetz.fr

Pinot Noir from Alsace, Domaine Valentin Zusslin

In the 20th century, Alsace was a great producer of red wines made with Pinot Noir. This variety, very much appreciated worldwide, which now makes the success of Burgundy, is not recognized anymore as a Grand Cru of Alsace since 1911. This directive did not put off its spurt. Many Alsatian wine growers con­tinue to grow it. And some of them united to ask the INAO to consider the appellation again.
“On the estate Zusslin at Orschwirr (between Colmar and Mulhouse), on our lands with calcareous-clay ferruginous subsoil, whose eastern slopes are covered with loess on the dry moors of the Bollenberg hill (semi-Mediterranean microclimate) favourable to its blooming, the Pinot Noir has always existed, co-manager Marie Zusslin explains. Our vineyard is being farmed in biodynamics for 17 years. Low but controlled yields, a good maturity of the grapes, drastic sorting of the harvest, maceration with manual and regular treading, maturing in oak barrels during 14 months without chaptalization nor yeasting, and at last a long ageing time: these are in short the good cares we provide these Pinot Noirs with for them to show their character.”
The vintages 2007 and 2008 are now on the market: “We release these red wines when they are source of pleasure”. Harmonie 2010 tasted En Primeur, and presented in a decanter in view of its young age, seduces the wine lover with its crushed strawberry-flavoured nose, its beautiful body which confirms the nose in the mouth and evolves to cherry in kirsch, and finally its long-lasting aftertaste. A real delight! We understand why Burgundy Pinot Noir enthusiasts come to taste them in Alsace …

www.zusslin.com

Clos du Zahnacker, Cave de Ribeauvillé

Alsace totals some twenty clos. Only few of them are Grand Crus but all of them are exciting on the wine tourism plan. They enable to grasp the History of the terroir, a region, or even a Chateau. The Clos du Zahnacker, owned by the oldest cooperative of France (1895), dominated by the Haut-Kœnigsbourg castle, in the heart of the Grand Cru Ostenberg, is a living example of this.
This Clos has a legendary past, its genesis dates back the 8th century. It still bears the name of its first known farmer, Monk-Knight Martin Zahn, “acker” meaning “field”. Louis XIV really liked this wine. On this 124-acres clos facing south-east, time stands still.
The 3 original varietals—Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer—are still planted equally on the Grand Cru initial plot. Field blend still being the rule, vinification of the three varieties in the same vat also is and enables to produce vintages with character and worth to be laid down which age at least three years in the cellar before release. A historical wine to keep in mind for a pilgrimage to the sources.

www.vins-ribeauville.com

Les Grands Vins de Terroir by Marcel Deiss

The Deiss family rooted their vines in Bergheim in 1744. After the Second World War, Marcel Deiss gives its name to the estate and runs it with his son André. Now his grandson Jean-Michel, helped by his own son Mathieu, manages and works the 220 plots composing the 27 hectares distributed over 9 villages and 20 km of viticultural hillsides. Their wish is to make terroir wines, “wines that express the genius of the place, this energy that comes forth like an appeal from the bottom of the heart, they comment, rather than varietal wines, too simplistic. In the great Alsatian tradition, these terroirs take the cadastral name, and field blend is the absolute rule of this requirement, as it was everywhere else (in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Côtes du Rhône) in the golden age of the French wines, famous for their great complexity”.
To get it, today’s wine growers have planted together in the same plots in the
appellation Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim up to thirteen varieties: the Pinots, Riesling, Muscat, Traminer … and Chasselas or Sylvaner, mixed with over fifty associated plants, herbs, flowers and fruit trees.
Jean-Michel defends this bucolic vision of the terroir. He does not want to con­trol everything. The more difficult the conditions are, the more the mixed vines brace and compensate. “In 2013, a lean period for most of us, I harvested 5% more grapes whereas my neighbours recorded a shortfall of 30%. We thus have the legitimacy to plant combined vines and to manage the vineyard as the ancestors did: ploughing, digging, compost, cover cropping, prohibiting pharmacopeia, weeding and chemical fertilizer. September then easily provides us with a range of divine flavours, a beautiful grape, and a complex wine”.
And indeed an astonishing aromatic expression of strength and unknown flavours develop in the glass, attracting wine lovers and professionals in solid queues at its tastings. A real first!

www.marceldeiss.com

Marie-Caroline Bourrellis