GROSSBERG 2019 - Red wine (aged in oak barrels)

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Limestone/sandstone piedmonts - wine aged in oak barrels

Appellation:

Alsace

Locality:

Grapes coming exclusively from two plots of vines owned on the Grossberg hillsides.

Type of soil :

The Louis SIPP parcels of Grossberg are situated in the geological fracture zone of Ribeauvillé. They are found west from the Grand Cru Kirchberg vineyards. The Grossberg vineyard lays over a hard layer of chalk and sandy marls. The soils are made of sands, limes and chalk. The exposition to the sun is south south-west. These chalky, early fruiting hillsides allow low yields with a high level of richness. All these factors are well adapted to the growth of Pinot Noir vines.

Certified organic grapes for an enhanced terroir expression:

Started in 2005, our conversion to organic production took a concrete form three years later in 2008 with the ECOCERT certification. Since 2012, all the cellar operations are also covered by the European specification so that we can now speak about organic wines.

Wine character:

A wine full of character. Nice dense red color. The nose is open and complex, with some wood notes and nice red fruits flavors. Direct on the palate, dense and still tannic. It follows previous sunny vintages like 2009 and 2011: Powerful and elegant

Tips for consuming:

This wine is still young. However, it can be enjoyed now provided it is decanted for a day or so. Grossberg needs 10 year to reach its Apogee.
An ideal accompaniment to cold meats and salads, poultry and white meat, red meat, game, and finally with some cheeses.
Works well also with dark chocolate. Un unusual pairing that works well.
This wine would benefit from ageing a couple of months to allow the tannins to get rounder.

Vines and vinification:

This Grossberg is coming from vineyards driven with low yields, thanks to a strict management of the vigor of the vines. Fully ripe grapes are manually harvested, destemmed and slightly crushed before maceration and fermentation. After a smooth pressing the wine is aged a couple of months in oak barrels and then bottled.

The 2019 vintage:

This new vintage follows the very generous 2018 vintage which did not always allow the vines to build up reserves. With a dry Autumn 2018 and capricious weather conditions the start of the growth got very heterogeneous. The cold temperature end of April and beginning of May did not improve the situation either and induced very slow growth of the vegetation. Some heavy rains in June, followed by extreme temperatures in July added more stress to the vines.
However, the harvest could start on September 12th and lasted until October 15th. The conditions were not stable at all with hot days and cooler ones. Luckily no heavy precipitations occurred.
Finally, we harvested nice and ripe grapes with great balance.