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Alsace 2023: Astonishing Whites and Splendid Reds from a Complex Year
France: Alsace, featured
, Apr 2025
Dry, dry, dry. This is how Alsace growers remember the 2023 vintage. Sandy, gravelly sites on the plain suffered and stony slopes struggled, but sites with more water-retentive soils fared much better. In 2023, the Rieslings have concentration, moderate alcohol, ripe acidity and great aging potential. The stylistic spectrum of Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer is as broad and diverse as ever, while Pinot Noir is getting finer and finer.
Alsace 2022 Reds: Continuing Their Trajectory
France: Alsace, featured
, May 2024
Alsace Pinot Noir continues to show its mettle. Most of the wines I tasted for this report are from the warm 2022 vintage, so sumptuous black cherry flavors abound, but happily free from the sins of over-oaking and over-extraction. The limestone-based wines are the clear winners. While the entry-level reds provide immense fresh-faced joy with their juiciness, the top wines need not shy away from the global limelight. The 2021 Pinot Noirs are trickier, but the best come with seductive slenderness and red-fruited brightness.
Alsace 2022 Whites – A Lucky Escape
France: Alsace, featured
, Apr 2024
For the most part, vintage 2022 in Alsace was both warm and dry. The region was lucky to escape the extreme heat and drought that plagued much of the rest of France. Rain arrived, sometimes “in extremis,” and saved the crop from losses that could have been worse. Wineries harvested concentrated, luminous Riesling despite some hail, and producers made Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer in a range of styles, resulting in plush wines. Even Sylvaners exhibit uncommon fruitiness. Beyond vineyards and cellars, ongoing consolidation within Alsace’s already polarized wine industry is of increasing concern to independent growers. The latter value quality over quantity while the drive for quantity by ever bigger behemoths explains the sea of vineyards across the plains along the autoroute.
Cellar Favorite: Famille Hugel - The 2015 Riesling Séléctions de Grains Nobles S and 2014 Riesling Grossi Laüe
France: Alsace, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Jul 2023
Jean-Frédéric Hugel paid a brief visit to London to launch a brace of late-release Rieslings. One from the 2014 vintage, from their top site Grand Cru Schoenenbourg. While the 2015 has already been released, this is the first vintage in which Hugel finally uses the grand cru designation rather than their Alsatian dialect term Grossi Laüe.
Alsace 2021s and 2020s – A Late Arrival in the Pinot Noir Pantheon
France: Alsace, featured
, Apr 2023
At long last, Alsace Pinot Noirs are coming to the fore. Hectares under vine are steadily increasing, and so is grower expertise. Some producers are veterans in teasing complex, elegant and expressive wines from this much-loved grape variety. Others are just starting. Pinot Noir is one of the most exciting developments in Alsace, and there are other varietal experiments, too.
Alsace 2020s and 2021s: Just like Janus
France: Alsace, featured
, Apr 2023
Two fundamentally different vintages, the hot 2020 and the problematic 2021, form the basis of my first Alsace report for Vinous. It turns out that the best producers came up with some stunning wines – negotiating and countering the heat in 2020 and sorting, sorting, sorting to produce exceptional wines with a wonderful acidic backbone in 2021, a year beset by mildew.
Cellar Favorite: Raiding the Cellar at Inspire Napa Valley
France: Alsace, France: Burgundy, France: Champagne, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Aug 2022
I was thrilled to open this eclectic collection of wines from my cellar during this year’s Inspire Napa Valley dinner at Staglin. It’s a rare treat to take a break from the hectic pace of tasting wines for review and actually drink a few things for pleasure.
Cellar Favorite: 1989 Trimbach Clos Ste. Hune Hors Choix Vendanges Tardives
France: Alsace, cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites
, Aug 2020
Last November 2019 BC (Before COVID-19), Jean Trimbach himself proffered a fabulous bottle of 1989 Clos Ste. Hune Vendanges Tardives Hors Choix at a private La Paulée in Beaune.
Vinous Table: Restaurant Koehler – Auberge du Cheval Blanc, Westhalten, France
France: Alsace, Vinous Table
, Apr 2019
Restaurant Koehler – Auberge du Cheval Blanc, in the pretty Alsace town of Westhalten, strives for excellence but falls down on details that it must correct if it hopes to become a must-stop on any sybarite’s journey.
Alsace: The 2017s And Late-Released 2016s, Part 2
France: Alsace, featured, France
, Feb 2019
Alsace, one of the most blessed winegrowing regions in the world, is in the midst of a generational change. Young growers are bringing a fresh mindset to the region’s viticulture and winemaking, its many outstanding wine grapes and its first-rate terroirs.