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Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc Alsace 2016

Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc Alsace 2016

A wonderful value, Paul Blanck’s 2016 Pinot Blanc is a limpid, slightly burnished gold in the glass. Crafted from 100% Pinot Blanc grown in gravel, sand and clay-limestone soils on south-facing slopes, it is a terroir-driven, elegant wine replete with notes of yellow apple, d’Anjou pear, underripe pineapple, line dried-linen, and catmint. There’s weight on […]

Albert Boxler Pinot Blanc Reserve 2014

Albert Boxler Pinot Blanc Reserve 2014

From 50+-year-old vines grown in low-fertility, highly weathered granitic soils, Albert Boxler’s Pinot Blanc Reserve is a treasure trove of ripe pear, apricot kernel and those jarred spiced apple rings that make their appearance during the holidays. Heady spice notes lead into a wine with a story to tell—a vein of quartz wending through a […]

Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé NV

Lucien Albrecht Crémant d'Alsace Brut Rosé NV

The season of lights continues with this mercurial Cremant d’Alsace from Lucien Albrecht. Glinting copper and rose gold in the glass, it’s an expressive wine, trimmed with apricot and quince, red berries and spice—notes that rise and tumble through an alluvion of cascading bubbles. In the mouth, this 100% Alsatian Pinot Noir is fresh and […]

Dopff & Irion Crémant d’Alsace Rosé Brut NV

Dopff & Irion Crémant d'Alsace Rosé Brut NV

A luminous salmon-hued sparker, Dopff & Irion’s Brut Rosé is composed of 100% Pinot Noir and opens with a cascade of lively bubbles that give rise to a chorus of citrus, raspberry, alpine strawberry, and spice notes. Nice energy on the palate, with acidity that ebbs and flows as it darts through clean layers pink […]

Gustave Lorentz Crémant D’Alsace Brut NV

Gustave Lorentz Crémant D'Alsace Brut

The color of sun-bleached straw, this charming Crémant D’Alsace from Gustave Lorentz opens with a lively torrent of fine bubbles and inviting layers of baked yellow apple, smokey pear, granulated honey and sea foam. In the mouth, orchard fruit is couched in blithe minerality and weightier layers of marzipan and wet dough. Finishes on a […]

Camille Braun Crémant d’Alsace Brut NV

Camille Braun Crémant d'Alsace Brut

Really loving this year’s crop Crémant d’Alsace sparklers, including this honey-hued biodynamic blend of 60% Auxerrois and 40% Pinot blanc from Camille Braun. It’s expansive on the nose, expressing baked apple and poached pear along with a heady topnote of shortbread, brioche, and earth. In the mouth, there’s weight, but there’s nice palate tension, too—a […]

Domaines Schlumberger Les Princes Abbés Pinot Noir Alsace 2014

Domaines Schlumberger Les Princes Abbés Pinot Noir Alsace 2014

From Pinot Noir vines grown in limestone and marl, the initial impression is somewhat vegetative—dried moss and damp tilth, with a daub of iron ore. It’s a quality that burns off like morning fog. With time and air, a different suite of aromas surface, classic notes of alpine strawberries and sour cherries. It’s sweet, round […]

Albert Mann Gewürztraminer 2015

Albert Mann Gewurztraminer 2015

The volume is turned way up on this 2015 Albert Mann Gewürztraminer, it explodes with pungent aromas of canned pear, lychee, musk melon, jasmine, and spice. Nervy acidity cleanly dissect a palate that is rich and viscous—there’s lots of energy and tension in this wine along with a finish strewn with white pepper, jasmine tea, […]

Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Blanc Alsace 2014

Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Blanc Alsace 2014

Soaring aromas of yellow peaches, mango, dried mint, and wet limestone—this is classic Alsatian Pinot Blanc. The palate boasts moderate weight with a spritely arching spine of oyster shell, pleasantly bitter peach skin, and grapefruit pith pit co-mingling with flecks of sea salt. A wonderful ying yang between lushness and vivid acidic verve in this […]

Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc Alsace 2015

Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc Alsace 2015

Easy like Sunday morning, Paul Blanck’s 2015 Pinot Blanc Alsace boasts aromatic charm. Laden in white peach and pine, stargazer lily, line-dried linen, and rosemary blossom. It’s got some weight to it, though nicely balanced by citrus soaked acidity and a pleasant herbal flourish at the close. 12.5% ABV | Sample Paul Blanck & Fils 8.9 […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com