Friday, March 23, 2012

Edelzwicker, Gérard Schueller

Elias Canetti got the Nobel prize in literature for the novel Die Blendung. It comes to my mind after spending a week in Burgundy, tasting several hundreds of the worlds' most prestigeous wines, day after day. Wines where 9 out of 10 fall into pieces after some years, after having been sold at astronomical prizes with promises of a glorious future that never arrives. At the same time you may uncork a 20 year old Alsace or Bordeaux at any quality level, selected with blindfold without any worries of oxidation.

Edelzwicker from Gérard Schueller in Husseren-les-Château has a lively and attractive aroma of flowers, mango, apricots and yellow apples. The taste is good, honest and refreshing with lovely acids, a nice backbone and some length. Price: Next to nothing.

2 comments:

Finare Vinare said...

Now that's some pretty bold statements ;-)

Autumn 2011, we arranged a tasting with 18 bottles of 1980-1990 Nuits-Saint-Georges from Domaine Remoriquet, a solid red wine producer in the midrange of Côte-de-Nuits. Nothing fancy or prestigeous, priced in the range between €50 and €90.

Not even a single bottle had fallen apart! On the contrary, they just got better over the evening.

So, which producers do you have in mind when you say 9 out of 10? Is it especially the white wine producers you're after? The prem-ox problems?

Would you really advice us to keep an Edelzwicker for 20 years?

Too bad we drank our 09s last summer ;-)

alsace-wine said...

I know you are right, but i had an evening in Burgundy with a lot of frustration. But I cannot help getting p-d off when a great Burgundy house like D-n serves a 2001 Chablis Grand Cru Le Clos that is oxidized, and the great house B-t offers a 2002 Corton that is lean and acidic. A few nights before, I had other bad experiences. But I think we can agree that selection is everything in Burgundy, and the chances that things go wrong are much more likely in Burgundy than in Alsace. On the other hand, on night like the one you describe, you are in heaven.