ALSACE

 

LAURENT BARTH (Bennwihr)

Looking like Damon Albarn has its perks - making great wine is not usually one of them. 20-something Laurent Barth has broad experience in wine-making, with stints in Beaune and Dijon, as well as California, Lebanon and even India. Bio-dynamic. He’s always looking for intensity and maximum ripeness. Testament to the incredible intensity of his fruit that even his Edelzwicker “Racines Metisses” is high quality! He uses the Vin de Presse (the Press wine after the pure free-run juice runs off) of every varietal other than Gewurztraminer - therefore Muscat, Sylvaner, Riesling and Pinot Gris. The Riesling Rebgarten is exhilarating and expressive. Thanks to the succession of warm summers you couldn’t describe the Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer as super-dry…”the fruit was so ripe, that if I managed to ferment them out they would have ended up over 15%. So I left them when I thought they were most harmonious”. The Pinot Gris is fat. The Marckrain is sensational. Gewurztraminer at the summit! We also found his Pinot Noir pure and perfumey. Good Alsace Pinot Noir, that rarest of animals.

 

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	RIESLING Rebgarten	2005	12.99

 

MITTNACHT-KLACK (Riquewihr)

Wines of exceptional concentration from this small family domaine who have holdings in some of the best vineyards around the picturesque town of Riquewihr, including the precariously steep “Schoenenbourg” Grand Cru vineyard which runs right down to the town’s mediaeval walls and “Rosacker” the legendary vineyard above the neighbouring village of Hunawihr.

 

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	RIESLING Muhlforst	2002	12.99
	GEWURZTRAMINER Vendage Tardive	2002	32.99