Rolly Gassmann

The Rolly Gassmann estate was founded in 1967 when the Gassmann estate, first documented in 1611, and the Rolly estate, first documented in 1676, were united by marriage. The 54 hectares of the domaine are in the limestone, marl and clay soils of Rorschwihr and Bergheim and in the granite soils of Rodern. Gewurztraminer is the most important grape, with 28% of plantings, followed by equal parts of Pinot Gris, Riesling and Auxerrois, with smaller portions of Muscat, Sylvaner and Pinot Noir. Pierre Gassmann has been in charge of the estate since 1997, after studying in Rouffach and Beaune and working internships with Huet in the Loire and Bründlmayer in Austria, amongst others. As of 1997, vines have been farmed according to biodynamic principles, but the estate is not certified. Fruit ferments spontaneously and stays on lees until the following year, being bottled between March and July. His panoramic, huge tasting room is full of giant tables laden with stones, rocks and fossils from his vineyards, and it is color-coordinated, like a museum of soils. During my visit, I tasted a selection of current releases spanning vintages from 1996 to 2021. Pierre Gassmann operates on a different plane. What he practices borders on alchemy and defies most conventional teaching about wine. His favorite word is “balance,” and late, non-selective harvest is key to his wines. “We want top maturity. We do not do green harvests. We get the balance in the vineyard from high planting densities. We are the last to harvest. Harvesting when leaves are green is no good for us because, at that point, neither malic nor tartaric acids are stable,” he says in a staccato delivery of his tenets. “We make wine in the same way the monks did [referring to the various abbeys who held vineyards in Rorschwihr]. We work to achieve the development of botrytis, and we love botrytis and passerillage.” To him, botrytis or passerillage is the “completion” of the grape’s growing cycle and, crucially, the “stabilization” of acidity. The wines are thus either off-dry or sweet. Pierre Gassmann notes that the last time the domaine made a dry white wine was in 1980. Today, the only dry wines he makes are Pinot Noirs – which also run counter to everything that is taught about winemaking. Despite all this, the wines achieve their balance. While the Pinot Noirs are not for everyone with their powerful, meaty smokiness, the white wines beguile, confound and astonish with their expressive aromatics, age-ability and length. Their extraordinary concentration seems to ward off evolution. The mature wines tasted still have a way to go. It is telling that I typed “this estate messes with your mind” in the margin of one of my tasting notes. The 2003 Muscat Moenchreben de Rorschwihr Vendanges Tardives is one of the most aromatically evocative wines I ever tasted.

From Alsace 2022 Reds: Continuing Their Trajectory (May 2024) by Anne Krebiehl MW

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2012 Pinot Noir de Rodern

Color: Red

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2018 Pinot Noir de Rorschwihr Réserve Millésime

Color: Red

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