2010 Pinot Gris Gottesthal, Paul Buecher

The southern gateway to Alsace is not, as often said, the city of Thann, but the municipality Leimbach, just south of Thann. Here wine has been cultivated since the 1300s on a bedrock of limestone. Throughout the municipality there are only 23 acres of land that may be used as vineyards, but just one single hectare is cultivated for grapes. So the wine that comes from here is simply unique. And so good!

2010 Pinot Gris Gottesthal from Paul Buecher in Wettolsheim is dense and yellow-green. The fragrance contains peach, pears, orange, apricot and hazelnuts. The taste is dense, fruity but elegant with a tension and a wonderfully fresh acidity. A perfect wine for grilled vegetables and savory meats. Price: 10 €.

2011 Riesling Dirstelberg, Agathe Bursin

There are producers who manage to make wines that can be approached on an undemanding casual way, but still has a depth and complexity that so that each time you put your nose to the glass, or lip to rim, you discover something new. Agathe Bursine is such a producer. All wines from her extremely well-run small property are fresh, clean and fruity. Prices are very moderate, in fact too low according to all objective standards.

2011 Riesling Dirstelberg from Agathe Bursin in Westhalten has aromas of passion fruit fruit, lemons, ripe green apples and wet stones. The taste is medium bodied and harmonious with fresh acidity, lots of juicy fruit, a balance on the dry side and a wonderfully tight minerality that stays long in the mouth. This is how Riesling should taste! Price: €8.60.

2008 Riesling Grand Cru Engelberg, Maurice Heckmann

Some of us do not appreciate high levels of alcohol in wines. Hence, we look for wines from
sensible producers that have terroirs on cold, calcareous soils with great exposition. One such terroir is Grand Cru Engelberg in the north, 20 km due west of Strasbourg. Here producers such as Heckmann, Pfister, Bechtold, Schmitt and Loew produce wines with a low-key and food-friendly balance, freshness and complexity.

2008 Riesling Grand Cru Engelberg by Maurice Heckmann in Dahlenheim is deep yellow. The aroma is developed and generous with lemon, mango, toast, white raisins and the pleasant notes of petrol that one often finds in this wine. The taste is medium bodied and dry with succulent fruit and a superior, zesty and mineral adicity that adds great qualities to this honest wine. Price: €9.

2005 Crémant, Bruno Sorg

Sparkling wine made ​​with the methode champenoise ferments a second time in the bottle, lying stacked sur lattes. During the period sur lattes, carbon dioxide is formed  and the complexity develops as dead yeast is degraded by means of autolysis. This sparkling wine has spent more than six years sur lattes in a magnum bottle before being degorged, which is on level with the most ambitious vintage champagnes. And it shows!

2005 Crémant from Bruno Sorg in Eguisheim has a bright yellow color with a green tint. The fragrance has everything you could want: toasted sourdough bread, slightly over-ripe apples, dark chocolate, citrus and a little brewer's yeast. The taste is fresh, clean, complex and elegant with lovely juicy fruit that stands up against the grippy acids. The finish is long, mineral and harmonious. A crémant far, far beyond the ordinary. Price: €18 for a magnum.

2004 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Osterberg, Mittnacht Frères

Hunawihr is a small village with just two streets. But there are some producers you absolutely can not miss: Mader (with its dry rich style), Sipp-Mack (on the way back after the painful split in the Sipp-Mack and Agapé), the cooperative (which never makes you disappointed) and the discrete but absolutely fabulous Mittnacht Frères. The firm is located on the main street, opposite François Schwach and David Ermel, and is run by cousins ​​Marc and Christophe. Here are all the wines very, very high quality.

2004 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Osterberg from Mittnacht Frères in Hunawhir is golden yellow. The nose is fresh and tight with hints of ginger, peach, smoke, grapefruit and wet stone. The taste is complex with creamy fruit, firm acids and a honey-like sweetness that leads into a long, balanced finish. Yezzz! Price: 18 €.

2007 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Osterberg, Louis Sipp

Grand Cru Osterberg provides some of Alsace freshest wines, regardless of grape. Often you'll find firm acids of lime and lemon in the Rieslings, and even Gewurztraminer from Osterberg is tight and elegant despite much residual sugar. The character comes because Osterberg slopes slightly to the east rather than to the south, while the heavy and calcareous marl soils keep protects the acids during the ripening process.

2007 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Osterberg from Louis Sipp in Ribeauvillé is green shimmering in golden yellow. The scent is fresh and it has exciting aromas of cured ham, lavender, honey and grated ginger. The taste is very mellow with a velvety mouth feel, and tight and almost harsh acid that provide energy to balance a natural sweetness. The aftertaste has a lot of salinity, a trait that will become more and more prominent with age. Price: 20 €.

The 2012 Alsace vintage, commented by vigneron Florian Beck-Hartweg

Alsace wine producers will remember 2012  as one of the most stressful vintage in the last times! We had all the climate extremes we could imagine : some winter frost, much rain in summer, hail... We had to be very vigilant all year long and adapt our strategy to the climate.

The sunny and dry weather in August and early September saved us. This permitted to dry the leaves and the grapes, and thus to avoid the rotting of the grapes. The grapes ripened very fast, permitting to start the grape picking earlier than expected. Then the weather forecasts predicted a long rainy period, and we realized that we had to pick the grapes as fast as possible, knowing that the grapes were perfectly ripe and that there was a risk of dilution and rotting.

We started with the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, which are really great: very healthy and a nice balance in the wines. Then the Gewurztraminers were very aromatic and balanced too. We picked all our vineyards because we realized that there was no chance to produce any good late harvests this year, which turned to be a good choice. Finally we picked the Rieslings last, which had more difficulty to ripen due to the draught. The best vineyards with low yields and deep roots managed to ripen before the rains, the others will be a bit lighter this year.

However, the result is much better than what we expected during the summer! In my opinion and in my region of Alsace, Pinot Noirs and Pinot Gris will be the best varieties this year, some Riesling and the late harvests won't be as good as in the last years.

Florian BECK-HARTWEG, ecological winegrower in Alsace
Dambach-la-Ville, 9 December 2012.