Winemaker Notes
Pair with poached fish, sushi, fine cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a very ripe and concentrated wine with caramelized pineapple, smoke and spice. A fireworks display of minerals on the palate that doesn't want to stop, but the texture is also stunning and that follows through into the super-long sea-salt finish. Great now, but has 20-30 years of aging potential. Made from biodynamic grapes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From granite soils, Humbrecht's 2015 Riesling Brand is terribly pure, fine and highly precise, delivering crushed stones and lemon perfume, as if it were another Sommerberg. Exciting! On the palate, this is a lush yet pure, intense and ripe, yet mineral and piquant Riesling; it has great elegance, noble intensity and great terroir expression. What a stimulating richness but also purity here, a beautifully fine tannin grip (as if it was Pinot Noir), and a long and persistent finish. This is a must buy of the vintage. Olivier compares the 2015 to 1983, which was also a very warm year and delivered elegant wines. This is pure, rich, lean, piquant and mineral, very stony, lush and fruity. Most of all, it is full of energy and fascination! A must buy!
Range: 95-96 -
Wine Spectator
This firm, broad white offers a zesty mix of apricot, slivered almond, star fruit and candied ginger flavors, underscored by stone and spice notes. Tightly meshed and linear today, so give this racy white some short-term aging.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
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.