2017 Riesling Mittelbourg

Assistant winemaker at Zind-Humbrecht in 2015 and 2016, young Victor Roth came back to his own estate in July 2017. With his arrival, a number of changes have been made at the estate. For example, the 2017 wines are the first to be made with indigenous yeasts and only one filtration (which now occurs just before bottling; Victor’s dad, Patrick, used to filter the wines twice within the year). The estate has also launched a new line, “Les Terres de Grès,” beginning in 2016, to showcase wines made from mostly sandstony soils, of which there is no shortage around the estate. Interestingly, this is one estate that grows a lot of Sylvaner (12% of their vineyard holdings are planted to this grape variety, in contrast to the more typical 2–3% of the rest of Alsace). Among the many terroirs farmed by Roth, the Mittelbourg is potentially a premier cru vineyard.