1998 Muscat Saering

Dirler wines are very naturally made:after all, he points out, "20% of my customers are doctors."Bottlings from the grès de Vosges the complex, often mineral-rich sandstone soil of the region, are especially light and elegant, and particularly flexible at the table. "On sandstone-rich soils like Kitterlé and Saering I prefer the so-called average vintages to the great years; the early harvests tend to burn off the acidity.It's the chalky soils, like Kessler, that do a better job withstanding heat," he adds.Dirler takes his wines from sandstone soils off their lees earlier for fear of losing aromatic finesse; the wines from chalk and other soils generally remain on the lees for a couple of months after the alcoholic fermentation ends.Incidentally, Dirler bottled no 1997 grand cru tokays, as he believes the grapes were cooked by the sun and the wines lacked finesse.But he is enamored of both muscat and gewürztraminer for their richness; the crop level was especially low for the latter variety.Nineteen ninety-eight brought an especially low yield for muscat due to a poor flowering, and '98 shows a slight confit character.But Dirler believes this year produced more elegant rieslings than '97, wines with more soil character.