2008 Domaine Barmès-Buecher Riesling Hengst

Lichen, moss, and forest floor mysteriously crop-up in the nose of Barmes-Buecher’s 2008 Riesling Hengst, accompanied by lime, tangerine, and apple. A blackberry like tartness and suggestion of underlying chalk on the palate add to the complexities adumbrated in the nose. The combination of corpulence and refreshment is admirable, and the finish vibrantly interactive yet at the same the opposite of obvious or loud. This ought to be intriguing and satisfying to follow for at least 15 years. As Francois Barmes was in the U.S. presenting his wines all the time that I was in Alsace last November, I tasted with his wife Genevieve and (for the first time in serious conversation with) his son Maxime, who clearly has the sharp wits and experimental spirit to harness his youthful enthusiasm. (I did not, however, ask him to play devil’s advocate in the case for biodynamics, which is by now a well-established practice at this address! For more on Barmes’ methodology, consult my report in issue 188.) Most of the 2009 Rieslings were almost shockingly low in acidity, but whether or not and if so to what degree they were thereby handicapped varied depending on the individual cuvee. Overall, Barmes’ approach to this vintage seems to have been to avoid problems from rapidly-ascending sugar and low acidity by picking relatively early, even if at the price of capturing only modestly ripe flavors. The array of 2009s I have reviewed is somewhat abbreviated, first on account of decisions the domaine made to conflate or omit the bottling of certain cuvees; secondly because a couple of Pinot Gris were still fermenting when I visited last November; and thirdly since from among a trio of whites still in tank awaiting sulfuring and bottling – testimony to the anomalously and inexplicably slow evolution of 2009s at this address – only one was in condition amenable to assessment. The 2008 collection is, thankfully, much more typically excellent. Importer: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also, a Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29

(13.5% alcohol, 4.2 g/l r.s. and 9.4 acidity) Medium yellow. Superripe, soil-driven aromas of stone fruits, pineapple, peach, mace and crushed stone. Broad, rich and suave on the palate; very ripe, even creamy, but dry. With its building flavors of lemon peel, minerals and crushed stone, this firmly structured riesling really tightens up on the back end. An impressive vin de terroir that should enjoy a slow and graceful evolution in bottle. Francois Barmes has made a consistently superb set of rieslings in 2008, with low residual sugar and strong acidity.