Riesling Brand Grand Cru 2020

The Riesling Brand Grand Cru 2020 from Domaine Zind-Humbrecht is a dry Alsatian Riesling at 13.5 % Vol. that does not hide its youth. The nose remains reserved at first and needs air, then grapefruit, lime, wet stone and thyme emerge, carried by the mineral character of the granite.

The Grand Cru Brand lies on the heights above Turckheim, facing the Vosges, at the mouth of the deep Munster valley. The steep slopes face south, the climate is hot, dry and windy, while cool air descends the valley at night. The bedrock is biotite granite with two micas. As the black mica of the Turckheim granite decomposes, it releases clay with a high exchange capacity, which underpins the minerality of the wines.

Pure Riesling. In the Brand the grapes ripen quickly; in 2020, 80 mm of rain fell on the first weekend of August. This site demands the greatest precision from Riesling when it comes to picking date: consistently among the first to be harvested, it is at the same time the one that takes longest for fermentation to complete. Yields lie between 30 and 40 hectolitres per hectare, the wine stays on the lees for at least six months and does not leave the cellar before one to two years.

Firm and a touch austere, the taut fruit sweeps across the palate with intense acidity and salinity. Anyone opening it today should decant it for several hours and pour it into a sufficiently large glass; left open over several days, it gains in expression.

Prawns with salted lemons and thyme risotto, avocado with grapefruit segments and toasted pine nuts, or chateaubriand with orange-tarragon butter, blood oranges and beetroot.

Olivier Humbrecht, the first Frenchman to hold the title of Master of Wine, converted the first five hectares to biodynamic farming in 1996 and now cultivates 42 hectares. The Humbrecht family has been making wine since 1620, and since 2019 Pierre Émile Humbrecht has joined as the eleventh generation.