Pinot Gris Rotenberg 2017 1500ml Magnum

The Pinot Gris Rotenberg 2017 from Domaine Zind-Humbrecht is a dry white wine from Alsace, grown on brick-red, iron-rich soils above the valley near Wintzenheim. Precision, transparency and balance define it, along with an intensity it has yet to fully reveal.

The Rotenberg lies right at the foot of the Vosges mountains. The limestone dates to the Oligocene, and the high iron oxide content gives the site both its name and its colour. The slope descends at a gradient of 30 to 40%, its surface eroded by glacial movement during the Quaternary, leaving a topsoil that is thin and very stony. The north-northwest exposure keeps the wine cool. Frost on 21 and 22 April 2017 pushed the yield down to 20 hl/ha; the estate's harvest began on 29 August, with the Rotenberg picked early.

Pure Pinot Gris from vines planted between 1972 and 1992. The wine has 2.6 g/l residual sugar, 3.6 g acidity and a pH of 3.3 at 13.5% vol. Olivier Humbrecht, the first Frenchman to hold the title of Master of Wine, converted the first five hectares to biodynamic farming back in 1996. At least six months of lees contact give the wine its texture, and no wine leaves the cellar before one to two years of ageing.

Aromatically brighter than on the nose: floral notes, above all rose, joined by an increasingly noticeable Muscat character. The tannic texture is fine, the wine both creamy and precisely delineated. It still shows some reserve, yet power and energy are audibly present underneath. Potential: certainly twenty years or more.

Challans duck with bigarade sauce and celeriac purée, baeckeoffe, or pearl barley risotto with roasted cauliflower and cardamom.

The 1500 ml magnum suits a wine with decades ahead of it, from a vintage Olivier Humbrecht ranks among the three finest since the estate's founding in 1959.