Riesling Clos Häuserer 2016

A Riesling that doesn't give up its charm without a fight: juicy fruit stands against an austere note that the limestone imparts to the wine. The 2016 shows a very precise structure and is built for long ageing.

Clos Häuserer is a square, 1.198-hectare vineyard directly below Grand Cru Hengst, on a gentle east-facing slope surrounded by hills. The soil is deep, calcareous marl, with the Oligocene bedrock lying one to one-and-a-half metres down. This thick layer of earth warms only slowly, which is why the site behaves like a late-ripening vineyard even though the area itself ripens early. The high active limestone content is thought to be the cause of the reductive character the wine shows in its youth.

Pure Riesling, spontaneously fermented; a delicate residual sweetness remains in the wine, which nonetheless comes across as almost dry, at 12.5% ABV. Olivier Humbrecht, the first Frenchman to hold the title Master of Wine, farms 42 hectares biodynamically, with yields of 30 to 40 hectolitres per hectare. The wines spend at least six months on the lees and don't leave the cellar before one to two years of ageing.

On the nose, ripe peach, apple compote, pear and ripe pineapple, overlaid with smoke, cardamom and anise, alongside broom and acacia blossom. On the palate, fresh fruit and pronounced residual sweetness, balanced by crisp acidity and a fine tannic note. The long finish holds a slightly bitter grapefruit note.

Oysters with grapefruit segments, mini artichokes with blood orange chutney, and chateaubriand with tarragon-orange butter and glazed beetroot.

The very first vintage, 1975, was not yet released under the vineyard name, as the vines were only three years old, and it remains remarkably lively to this day. To drink the 2016 now, decant it for several hours and pour it into a sufficiently large glass; a few days after opening it gains in expressiveness.