2010 Huebuhl

Jean-Michel Deiss told me he may stop producing VTs and SGNs altogether. "They're a small quantity of wine that only a few people are interested in and they don't really speak of our terroirs, so we are going to produce less and less." In fact, he didn't show me any such wines on my September visit. "From 2008 through 2011, the vintages couldn't have been any more different," Deiss told me, "but the key was having wines characterized by ripe acidity, especially in a vintage like 2010. It doesn't matter that the wines were acid, as long as the acidity was ripe. In fact, I think that our '08s, '09s and '10s are all pretty similar; they are in the same style. So it's really all about the sense of place, not about vintages or grape varieties." Deiss believes that each vineyard ought to be a complete ecosystem and has gone as far as planting trees among the rows of his vines. Walking through his vineyards is almost like a walk in the forest, so lush, green and overrun with vegetation they are. Multiple grape varieties are routinely co-planted within his rows of vines, but I have always been surprised that he chose to plant pinot noir (all the pinots, in fact) in the Mambourg, one of the hottest sites of all in Alsace. And yet, while all of his grand cru blends are fairly monumental wines needing plenty of time in both 2010 and 2011, I think the Mambourg 2010 is the best wine he has done in quite some time. Also recommended: 2011 Langenberg (85-87), 2011 Schoffweg (85-87), 2011 Huebuhl (84-86), 2010 Langenberg (86).