Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
The dry forest floor and rooty aromas are the first things you get on the nose and they stay with you all the way to the finish, where they hang for an eternity. What extraordinarily fine tannins this Alsace pinot masterpiece has on the very graceful medium-bodied palate. Stunning freshness in the finish. From a warm site, which has to be picked quite early. Only the sixth vintage of this wine. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification.
-
Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Hüt was grown on a south-facing limestone slope with a slight clay cover. It will be bottled in March 2024. It still has a reductive touch, but underneath, silky notions of ripe cherry unfurl. The palate is smooth and has just an edge of oak. The tannins are silky and smooth, like spiderwebs. The fruit is ripe and sumptuous, alive with cherry notions and aromatic overtones of Amarena, but beautifully slender and well captured. This is a lovely Pinot Noir that does the splits between hedonistic juiciness and serious single-site wine. It’s lovely and exceptionally well captured. (Bone-dry)
Barrel Sample: 90-92
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Small but mighty, this picturesque region in northeastern France is renowned for its white wines produced by passionate families whose winemaking roots span generations and even centuries. Nestled between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine River, Alsace benefits from a sunny, dry climate and a long growing season. It is one of the most geologically diverse regions in the world — one of the many reasons why Alsace rocks!
Alsace wines include dry, mineral-driven Riesling, earthy Pinot Gris, refreshing Pinot Blanc, exuberant Gewurztraminer, elegant Pinot Noir, and more. From traditional-method sparkling wines to easy-drinking AOC Alsace, to complex Grand Cru bottlings from 51 distinct sites, and rich, late harvest wines, Alsace produces a wine for every occasion. Most Alsace wines are single-varietal bottlings and are labeled with the grape name. The region is also one of the greenest wine-producing areas in France, with 36% of its vineyard area certified organic.
Riesling, the region’s calling card, is dry, fresh and floral in its youth, developing complex mineral and flint character with age. Gewurztraminer is known for its signature spice and lychee aromatics. Pinot Gris is prized for its combination of crisp acidity and savory spice as well as ripe stone fruit flavors. Pinot Blanc is an affable food partner or porch sipper. Pinot Noir, the only red grape in AOC Alsace, is now authorized in three Grand Cru areas and is also used for Crémant d’Alsace sparkling rosé. Any bottle you choose will offer deliciousness, pleasure and value that is unprecedented in other wine regions.