2015 Pinot Auxerrois H Vieilles Vignes

As elsewhere, the harvest in 2016 was a very long one, starting on September 20 and finishing only in November (in most years at Josmeyer, they are able to finish it within a 3- to 4-week period). According to Céline Meyer, one of the members of the sister duo that runs Josmeyer (Céline is the estate president; the winemaker is her sister Isabelle), the problem child this year for them was Riesling, which had trouble reaching optimal ripeness, especially in those vineyards planted on flat sites. All the 2016 wines at Josmeyer are characterized by high acidities and low residual sugars, often even lower than usual (less than 1 g/L residual sugar is common, even in wines such as the Auxerrois H, which normally has 3-4 g/L residual sugar). I tasted through an excellent range of wines at Josmeyer this year; readers who like classic dry white wines would do well to search these out.

This year has been a difficult one for Josmeyer as winery owner Felix Meyer passed away. That was followed by the departure of Christophe Erhart, who was in charge of the winery’s business and supervised viticulture. The new chef de culture at Josmeyer is Fabrice Guyot, a vigneron in his own right (he sells his grapes to the Cave Cooperative de Ribeauvillé). Isabelle Meyer, who is Josmeyer’s winemaker and now runs the estate with her sister Céline (the estate president), said that “…the wines of 2015 are all about volume and flesh, the exact opposite to the wines of 2014s.”