2010 Riesling Schlossberg Grand Cru

A Muscat-like aura of lemon and tangerine rinds, buddleia, orange blossom, pungent sage and pit-tinged apricot inhabits the brightly juicy Weinbach 2010 Riesling Schlossberg. There is a sense of substantiality about this that strikes me as slightly at odds with its brightness and juiciness, but it finishes with appropriately refreshing persistence, zesty sizzle, and a somehow crystalline as well as alkaline sense of mineral impingement. Bittersweet floral perfume billows across the palate, adding allure as the wine takes on air. Apropos the aforementioned sense of weightiness, Catherine Faller suggests that with acid levels as high as they were in 2010 Rieslings, unless one were going to de-acidify (which Weinbach did not), it was necessary to take some alcoholic weight into consideration not just in letting the fruit hang long enough but in having an offsetting effect on the palate to such potentially tart brightness. A similar consideration applies rather obviously to the residual sugar left behind here, which is sufficiently integrated to not engender any outright sense of sweetness. I suspect that this Schlossberg - which became clearer and more complex as it sat open over a couple of hours - will drink superbly through 2030. The sudden death at age 47 of Laurence Faller this June represents a terrible loss to Alsace viticulture and to wine lovers worldwide, not to mention a tragic blow to her young family and to Collette and Catherine Faller, who along with Catherine's son Theo (hands-on vineyard manager since 2003) will continue to run Domaine Weinbach. Laurence had taken a virtual leave of absence from her family's estate in 2010 to devote her attention to raising her two small children, but the biodynamic viticultural approaches and style of vinification that she developed remained as guiding principles, and she had returned to full-time work at her family's estate in 2013. Picking for Riesling did not begin here in 2010 until after mid-October, and even then, ripeness was possible only thanks to extremely low yields, which were also the reason that harvesting was finished already on October 28. The last time that harvest here started so late was in underripe (and unlamented) 1984, but on that occasion, picking did not conclude until the 25th of November! The generosity in both style and yield of 2011 was welcome here as elsewhere after the challenges and small crop of 2010; and in characteristic Weinbach form, the Fallers managed to convey considerable stylistic clarity and precision to the resultant wines, just as they imparted richness to wines of 2010. The harvest of 2011 did not begin until mid-September, and Riesling was only brought in beginning the end of that month. It's worth noting, incidentally, that quite a few of the Weinbach 2010s have dropped significant amounts of tartrate crystals, not something that would have adversely affected the balance of these universally high-acid wines - if anything, the opposite - but something that will inevitably end up shimmering in some of your guests' glasses. As usual, alongside the principle offerings from two vintages I was brought up-to-date by the Fallers on their nobly sweet wines from a preceding vintage, in this case 2009. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802

As with their Ste-Catherine, this is expert Riesling, but with an added complexity that seems creamier – not oaked, surely? In some ways it reminds me of the best oaked Sauvignons. So compelling – it really draws you back. (RH)

From the upper slope of the Schlossberg. Spicy nose. Transparent and racy, bone dry. Chewy – needs time.  (JR)