Deep golden color, medium hue, wonderfully complex aromas and tastes, medium mouth feel, extraordianrily long finish. Words fail me -- Janet said it best -- this is a delicious wine, Bob -- buy more. [Then I told her the price.
] Excellent EGA. 5*.
Notes:
OCW3: Trimbach family-run wine producer based at Ribeauvillé in Alsace. The company was established in 1626. Its wines are characterized by very fine fruit and high acidity. Even its Sylvaner can stand many years‚ bottle ageing. Two of its most famous bottlings are Rieslings: the very fine, rare, and long-lived Clos Ste-Hune (in fact from the Alsace Grand Cru Rosacker) and Cuvée Frédéric Émile, named after the 19th-century Trimbach who expanded the business to become an important merchant house as well as vine-grower.
Steve Tanzer: "Lemon cream nose, with a tangy apricot hint. Tactile and thick with extract; a huge, just off-dry wine with explosive fruit and uncanny freshness ... Powerful fruit clings to the palate."
Rare Wine Company: The Trimbach family's tiny 3-acre Clos Ste. Hune produces not just Alsace's greatest wine, but one of the most revered wines of France. The Clos lies within the Rosacker grand cru. Yet, the Trimbachs label their treasure simply as Clos Ste. Hune, just as they have since 1919. They refer to neither Rosacker nor grand cru; Clos Ste. Hune transcends both. It is hors classé in the same way that Ch. d'Yquem is in Sauternes.
A Unique Terroir. Arguably the most perfect place in France to grow Riesling, Clos Ste. Hune stands apart from Alsace's other top Riesling vineyards, which rely on steep slopes and heat-retaining granite or schist soil to bring their fruit to full ripeness. In contrast, Clos Ste. Hune's 40-year-old vines are planted in cool, calcareous-clay soil with a gentle incline and a high percentage of limestone. So, while other famous Alsace Rieslings can sometimes border on heaviness, Clos Ste. Hune balances its enveloping richness with an intense minerality, remarkable finesse and great structure. Thus, like a Raveneau grand cru Chablis, the more it ages, the more profound Clos Ste. Hune becomes.
One Master. Clos Ste. Hune has for more than two centuries enjoyed the undivided attention of one of France's greatest winemaking families. Staunch traditionalists, the Trimbachs reject their neighbors' recent efforts to make sweeter, lusher wines. They continue to make Clos Ste. Hune as they did in the past: a cool, slow fermentation, a quick racking to remove the wine from the lees, no malolactic fermentation and a short period of aging in neutral wood foudre before bottling early to retain the fruit. The wine is then aged for an incredible five years in bottle before being released.
In great years, tiny amounts of Vendange Tardive are made, but they are different from other VT's. They result not from botrytis but passerillage-dehydration caused by the sap returning to the vines root system. They boast immense concentration and complexity, but only off-dry levels of residual sugar, as Trimbach vinifies them to be as dry as possible. Like other Clos Ste. Hunes, the VT's are capable of immortality.
Unrivalled Consistency. But what makes Clos Ste. Hune most extraordinary is its consistency, having established a record of greatness over the last 86 years that is unequaled in Alsace. As Tom Stevenson writes in The Wines of Alsace, "I cannot think of any Alsace Riesling that could match its performance year-in, year-out over a span of, say, 40 vintages. It is the consistency of performance that establishes the greatness of a growth."
Even in average years like 1986, Clos Ste- Hune is stunningly aromatic, complex and capable of long development. Such a track record shows the advantage of this vineyard as a Trimbach monopole; with a deep understanding of the site's potential, the Trimbachs clearly relish their role as steward of this historic cru. With only 500 to 600 cases made, and demand far exceeding supply, even current vintages of Clos Ste. Hune can be excruciatingly difficult to find.