Alsace 2022 Whites – A Lucky Escape

BY ANNE KREBIEHL MW | APRIL 04, 2024

The first week of my Alsace trip in January 2024 was characterized by snow-covered conifers of the Vosges, negative temperatures and icy roads. While these conditions made driving tricky, ice and snow were a blessing both to vineyards and forests. They absorb meltwater and, along with already incessant rain in the fall and winter of 2023, they replenished their water reserves. But I will discuss that more next year. Most of the reviews in this report cover the 2022 vintage, along with a sizeable portion of 2021s as well as 2020s and 2019s – depending on the various release schedules of the growers. Although I tasted a mere handful of 2023s, the focus of this report remains on the 2022s.

The steep slopes of the Sommerberg Grand Cru look down on Niedermorschwihr.

Speaking with Hindsight

When speaking to growers, it became clear that the more recent experience of the 2023 harvest had already colored the view of the hot and dry 2022 vintage. Yes, dry stress occurred in 2022, but it paled in comparison to 2023. Like elsewhere, a warm and dry summer characterized the 2022 growing season in Alsace. While there was dry stress in some stony soils, especially in well-drained, steep, granitic and sandstone slopes, the limestone and marl soils fared much better. Thus, dryness rather than drought distinguishes the 2022 growing season. Compared to other regions in Europe, Alsace got away relatively lightly. Localized showers helped, even if an August hailstorm damaged the Brand and Sommerberg Grands Crus.

Growers were happy to have decent yields, albeit lower than the average, due to dryness after the often-devastating losses of 2021. This resulted in some stunning wines from concentrated grapes with expressive and juicy fruit flavors. Even the Sylvaners brim with fruit in 2022. The 2022 Rieslings show concentration and often come with a fine phenolic structure that makes up for the lower acidities when compared to 2021 – while tasting pristinely bright and fresh. I had already addressed this mechanism in my reports on Germany: less water moving through the vine in drier years means fewer minerals like potassium are deposited in the grapes. These minerals usually buffer the pH level of the resulting wines, but with lower deposits, there is less buffering and hence, even lower acidities shine brightly. Jean Boxler thinks that concentration rather than acidity determines the longevity of Riesling, as he grows Riesling on the steep and extremely well-drained granitic slopes of the Sommerberg Grand Cru. However, a variety like Riesling will always last the distance when planted in such a world-class site by such an assiduous grower. Vine age also made a crucial difference – younger vines suffered more than established, mature vines when it came to water stress. The white Pinots display fuller bodies and both Pinots and Gewurztraminers benefited from phenolic structure to balance the fruit – a practice that the wineries I visited are honing and fine-tuning with every year.

Even the bears like grapes in Alsace. This statue in Andlau combines the village's twin emblems: the bear and grapes.

2022 Growing Season – The Recap

"We were not hit by spring frosts," Olivier Humbrecht MW explained at Domaine Zind-Humbrecht. “Bud break was early to middling, and flowering began in Clos Jebsal on 20 May. The rest of the vineyards followed by the first week of June. Then temperatures got super hot later in June. Heat and dryness caused serious problems. While the hillside vines did better, due to later flowering, the Riesling on the valley floor suffered.”