Vertical
Tasting of Domaine Dirler-Cadé’s Sylvaner

One reason I never miss a chance to
visit Jean Dirler and his family is that the Dirler-Cadé estate in Bergholtz makes
outstanding wines from several different Alsace varieties. Its Sylvaner, a
grape often treated as an afterthought in Alsatian wine-production circles, is
especially noteworthy. I do not feel that I am exaggerating when I describe it
as a world-class wine The fact that it ages extremely well is an added
bonus.

A History Spanning Five Generations




















The Jean Dirler estate goes back to
1871, when it was founded by the original Jean Dirler. Four generations later
(following Georges, Georges and Jean-Pierre), another Jean Dirler married
Ludivine Cadé and in 2000 took over the nine hectares of vines that had been
worked by Ludivine’s father, Léon Hell-Cadé, renaming his estate Dirler-Cadé. Today
Dirler-Cadé owns 18 hectares (29% of the estate is planted to Riesling, with Gewürztraminer
the second most important variety here), including a number of parcels in
famous grand crus such as Spiegel, Kessler, Kitterlé and Saering. In fact, almost
50% of the estate’s vines are located in grand cru sites. Now engaged in
biodynamic farming, Dirler has since replanted most of his father-in-law’s old
property with massale selections from
the Hebinger nursery in Eguisheim. Production hovers around 90,000 bottles per year.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1462901330456-The+Direlr-Cade%CC%81+family+-+Copy.jpg">&nbsp;

The Dirler-Cadé family; Jean Dirler, Ludivine Dirler,
Jean Pierre Dirler and Marthe Dirler, with a portrait of&nbsp;Jean Dirler, who founded the domaine in 1871, in the background

Sylvaner is Special and Versatile at&nbsp;Dirler-Cadé

The Dirler family has always held
Sylvaner in high esteem. “It’s a very underrated grape,” says Jean Dirler. “People
fail to treat it with the respect it deserves in the vineyard, so Sylvaner
rarely gets to show its true colors. And that’s an absolute shame, since it’s
an outstanding food wine, much better than many Gewürztraminers and Pinot Gris
wines that are blowsy and over the top.” I certainly agree. Sylvaner does remarkably
well when matched with crustaceans and shellfish of all kinds, as well as with
asparagus, artichokes and cilantro, all notoriously tricky for pairing wines. I
should note that I am not the only fan of Dirler-Cadé’s Sylvaners. The wine is
so popular that it’s sold at a higher price than the estate’s Pinot Blanc, which
is rarely the case in Alsace.




















Sylvaner is a lovely variety to look
at as well as to taste, with its greenish berries capable of producing delicious,
fresh wines redolent of white stone fruits, quince, minty herbs and green apple.
(There is also a red-berried variant but my own feeling is that this is a
different grape variety, rather than a mutation of the more common “green”
Sylvaner.) When it’s harvested late, Sylvaner can give truly profound, honeyed
sweet wines boasting rich aromas and flavors of apple compote, quince jam, ripe
citrus fruits and chamomile, while dry versions can offer delicate stone fruit
and herbal nuances, with earth and mineral notes of crystalline purity.
Sensitive to both powdery and downy mildew, Sylvaner does not handle frost or
overly hot weather well. It is also prone to chlorosis (yellowing leaves that
have insufficient chlorophyll to ripen the grapes). Budbreak occurs just before
Riesling, and Sylvaner is harvested fairly late in the year, rarely beginning
before late September—but sometimes as much as a month later, if a late-harvest
wine is the aim.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1462901263405-Heisse+Wanne+vineyard+used+to+make+the+Sylvaner+wine+copy.JPG"> The Heisse Wanne vineyard in&nbsp;the town of Guebwiller

Too Much Sylvaner is Overcropped




















A potentially very generous
producer, Sylvaner can put out waterfalls of grapes, which explains much of the
insipid, neutral plonk that has given the variety its reputation for pedestrian
wines. Clearly, at yields of 100 hectoliters per hectare—as was commonplace for
Sylvaner back in the 1980s, when the variety accounted for 20% of Alsace’s
plantings—no grape variety can show its best. In Alsace, Sylvaner’s woes were
further compounded by the ill-conceived wine law of 1975, modified in 1983,
which failed to recognize Sylvaner as a “noble” grape. Consequently, like Pinot
Blanc, wines made from Sylvaner could not benefit from the words “grand cru” on
the label (and clearly, the term helps to sell wines, regardless of the quality
that’s actually in the bottle), leading producers to rip much of it up and to
replant with Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer, even in sites that are not
especially suited to those three varieties. Recently, an exemption has been
made for the Zotzenberg site, where Sylvaner can now be labeled grand cru, but
this is a small fix at best. Other marvelous sites for Sylvaner, such as the
Zinnkoepflé, are still not recognized as grand crus for the variety. Sylvaner’s
fall from grace is also attributable to the fact that it is not one of the
grapes allowed for production of Crémant d’Alsace (the region’s increasingly
popular sparkling wine) owing to its relatively low acidity. Consequently, it
makes little economic sense to plant Sylvaner. <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1462901452898-lieu-dit+called+Belzbrunnen+Sized+used+to+make+the+Sylvaner+wine.jpg"> 

The Belzbrunnen lieu-dit in&nbsp;the town of Guebwiller

The Beginnings of a Comeback




















But there are encouraging signs that
besides Dirler-Cadé, producers in Alsace are starting to devote more attention
to Sylvaner: Agathe Bursin, Albert Seltz, Barmès-Buecher, Josmeyer, Muré,
Ostertag and Seppi Landmann, among others, all make outstanding wines, while Albert
Boxler, Kuentz-Bas and Léon Beyer also offer noteworthy versions. It is worth pointing
out that the majority of Sylvaner vines in Alsace are quite old (40 to 50 years
or more), which goes a long way toward explaining the quality of many of the
wines made by dedicated producers. Most of these estates are beginning to plant
additional small quantities of Sylvaner.

Dirler’s Versions of Sylvaner




















Until recently, Dirler, who
generally prefers not to harvest his Sylvaner late, offered two different
Sylvaner bottlings, a Vieilles Vignes
and a single-vineyard wine from the Heisse Wanne lieu-dit. The Wanne is actually anything but a lieu-dit in quality and reputation; in fact, it’s more deserving of
grand cru status than many other Alsace sites that have been labeled as such,
often for political reasons. Back in the 16th century, the Wanne was
considered one of the three best plots in all of Alsace, along with the Rangen
and the Brand—heady company indeed! Located in the central part of the Kessler grand
cru, the Wanne was historically
subdivided into three sections, of which the Heisse Wanne is the best known and
the warmest (the Kessler itself is already a warm site), so its wines tend to
be rich and flavorful. In my opinion, just about the only drawback associated
with the Heisse Wanne is that its soils of red sandy clay over limestone and
sandstone bedrock are not as deep as those elsewhere in the cru, and drainage
is quite good, which means the grapes can suffer from hydric stress in hot, dry
years. <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1462901941662-Dirler1-COVER+SIZED.jpg"> 

Dirler’s Sylvaner vines in the
Heisse Wanne were planted in 1959. The resulting wine is deep and luxurious,
but the Vieilles Vignes bottling, as
its name suggests, is no slouch either when it comes to the age of vines, as
the grapes used to make it are culled from roughly 40-year-old vines planted in
the Bux and the Schwarzberg lieux-dits.
In any case, this is a moot point nowadays as Dirler has opted to produce just
a single Sylvaner bottling beginning with the 2013 vintage, in the belief that
two Sylvaner selections risk impoverishing the Vieilles Vignes bottling. In a confirmation of Sylvaner’s recent
tough-luck status at the cash register, Dirler also candidly admitted that he
was having trouble selling two different Sylvaner wines. But given the renewed
interest in the grape variety, things are set to change for the better. 

I tasted the wines in this vertical
last September with Dirler and his family at the estate. 

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--Ian D’Agata

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