2010 Gewurztraminer Hengst

As Josmeyer works with 88 parcels of vines, "'harvesting fast is all-important," said Isabelle Meyer (the winemaker), who with her sister Celine (the general manager and president)now runs the show here with father Jean.Interestingly, Isabelle told me that biodynamic farming, which the estate was one of the first to implement in Alsace, is beginning to give her headaches."The grapes ripen almost too well, and the natural yeasts have become particularly adept at breaking down sugars.We now find that we're getting 0.5% alcohol more on every cuve than we used to, and it's not exactly a good thing, in light of the style of wines my father has made our estate famous for."Asked why this might be happening, she candidly answered that she really isn't sure."Most likely, in especially good vintages, the combination of low stress, low disease pressure--especially gray rot--and high nitrogen availability greatly increases yeast numbers as well as their efficacy in metabolizing sugars, but let me tell you, it's becoming a problem."Isabelle felt the estate has made some of its best wines ever in 2010, and I would tend to agree.She refers to them as "wines of real luminosity" and likes her pinot gris and rieslings best."Part of my love for these wines," she admits, "is due to how hard they were to make, with long and even stuck fermentations.By comparison, 2011 was much easier, even though finding the right sugar/acid balance was key.And in '11, our best wines were the gewurztraminers."