GRUENSPIEL 2019

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Clay and marls - Opulent and supple.

Appellation:

Alsace

Locality:

Grapes coming exclusively from local soils of the Gruenspiel located east of Ribeauvillé at the bottom of the sub-vosgian hills.

Type of soil:

On a shelve of marls and clay from Lias and Oligocene, our Gruenspiel vineyards show soils with a combination of silt clay and sand. They are South oriented, get steady water supply that allow a good maturing of the grapes. Botryris Cinerea is also present when the weather conditions make it development possible.

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:

Nice yellow color. The nose is open, riche and complex. Tropical fruit notes are the testimony of the presence of Noble Rot. A spicy character is also can also be noticed. Ample and wide on the palate with a nice sweetness (typical for the high maturity of this vintage). The after taste is long, rich, and not heavy at all. A wine of character, coherent and full.

Tips for consuming:

Goose lever, exotic cooking, spicy dishes, cheese (Munster, Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Stilton…), cookies like chocolate truffles are perfect matches with this Gruenspiel.
Can be enjoyed immediately. More years ageing will allow this wine to develop its entire complexity.

The 2017 vintage:

We had a relatively dry winter 2016-2017. The precipitations did not allow to regenerate the water resources of the soils. January was cold over a long period with temperatures down to -10°C. This was very positive for the structure of the soils.
Thanks to temperatures above average mid-March, the vines stated to grow quite early. Flowering went well. A nice summer reinforced the precocity of the vintage.
The key factors of the vintage are the small crops. This is related to a succession of problems that affected the production: frost, hail, drought (less than 250 mm rainfall from April to August), and finally wind. The addition of all these difficulties highly affected the yields. We had to face the smallest yields over decades.
The harvest started on September 7th in good conditions. The grapes were perfect. Thanks to ideal weather conditions it was possible to harvest each plot of the vineyard at the perfect moment without the pression of meteorological conditions.
The wines from 2017 are precise, elegant with a delicate but not invasive freshness. For sure a very nice vintage.

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.