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There are certainly plenty of folks in the wine business that have their formula for making wine and pretty much do the same thing every year like clockwork. There are others that produce some quirky things just because they want to without even knowing if those varietals are suited to the spot, or necessarily having a plan to sell them. Then you have the purist, the winemaker that listens to what the grapes and the terroir say to him and follows their instincts. Pierre Trimbach definitely falls into that last group.
Today we are going to present a wine that we had never seen before from the Trimbach stable, a stable that includes two of the world’s most revered Rieslings, their Cuvee Frederic Emile and Clos Sainte Hune. Given the level of his performance over the years with a variety of Riesling projects among his many bottling, Trimbach is something of a ‘Riesling Whisperer’ and, more important, he listens. This wine, the Trimbach Riesling Sélection de Vieilles Vignes 2015, more than whispered to Pierre one day as he was tasting through his Riesling lots to determine final blends.
Who better to tell the story than Anne Trimbach herself, a story which she shared with us in a personal note. “In 2009, my father Pierre was stuck in front of the same tank of Riesling supposedly to blend into the Riesling Reserve. I caught him several times tasting the same tank again and again; Somehow, he was drawn to the same Riesling cuvee and so I asked him: “What is going on with this tank?” He just replied: “This is really good!”
He did not blend it in the end. It was too good on its own. So since that decision was made, Anne asked what this new cuvee would be called. She asked her father for more details on the sourcing for this distinctive lot of juice. He said, “Oh, it’s a selection of old vines from Hunawihr and Ribeauvillé with 50+ year-old vines from 2 special vineyards: Muehlforst and Trottacker (possessed of marl and limestone soils).” With that a cuvee, and a name, was born. Now ‘old vine cuvee’ doesn’t sound like a particularly memorable moniker. But it was enough for the Trimbachs to identify this remarkable blend amongst all of their others.
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It has the same delicate balance and ethereal, infused minerality of Trimbach’s flagship Clos Sainte Hune and ‘Freddy’, in perhaps a more harmonious, somewhat more laid-back style. But all the layers are there and this dry, beautifully crafted Riesling brings the drama.
If you are looking to be overpowered, that is not the Trimbach style. For three centuries and across 13 generations, the family has produced wines that are structured, long-lived, fruit driven, elegant and balanced dry Rieslings as Mother Nature dictated. As Anne put it, they had no plans to make a new cuvee. But they pay serious attention to their business and this cuvee simply happened. The Riesling Whisperer had the wisdom to see it and knew what needed to be done.
Stephan Reinhardt of Wine Advocate was appropriately taken with this one, “…the 2015 Riesling Sélection de Vieilles Vignes is a blend of Mühlforst, Rosacker, Haguenau and Vorderer Haguenau (the south-facing, 3-hectare vineyard, where Trimbach holds one hectare with 70+-year-old vines in high-density plantings called "little Geisberg"). The wine opens with a generous but precise and elegant nose of white, ripe fruits. Deep and complex on the mineral-structured palate, this is a highly expressive, very elegant, dense and balanced Riesling with a long, pretty intense and aromatic finish and a lingering salinity. This is a remarkably good and intense Riesling on 1er cru level...92 points.”
He wasn’t alone, this one also picked up ‘92’s’ from Vinous (“very classy”) and Suckling, so you get the idea, this old-vine cuvee was beloved across the board. Fans of great Riesling, or just really killer dry whites, will be absolutely thrilled by the price and performance here. This truly is a reserve level effort.
We’d go so far as to say that, if tasted in a cellar that did not also contain legends like the Clos Sainte Hune and Frederic Emile, the ‘number’ would have been even higher, this wine certainly plays closer to those two iconic bottlings than Trimbach’s ‘regular’ Riesling for sure, though the price doesn’t indicate that.
We have reason to believe this is the first time the Selection Vieilles Vignes has crossed the Pond for distribution. From what we can tell we are one of only two or three stores in America that are currently selling this wine. Get your bottles of this exclusive cuvee now.
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Trimbach Riesling Selection de Vieilles Vignes 2015
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92 Points! Bright straw-yellow. The very floral nose also hints at liquid minerals, minty herbs and marzipan. Then lemony fresh, featuring a peppery, zingy acidity that nicely frames the flavors of ripe orchard fruit, fennel and licorice. Clearly, this is more penetrating and has stronger, more intense flavors than the Riesling Réserve. Not made every year but only in exceptional ones, for “… the key when making this wine is not to impoverish our Riesling Réserve by diverting grapes to yet another wine. In 2015, we could do that without worries,” said the Trimbachs almost in unison. Very classy wine from grapes grown mainly on the marly calcaire soils of the Hagueneau; this will last, but is deceptively easy to drink now. - Ian D'Agata, Vinous Media
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COMPANY
© 2018 WINE EXCHANGE
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CONTACT INFO
1544 East Warner Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92705, USA
PHONE: 1-800-769-4639
FAX: 714-979-1520
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