Technical presentation
| Bottling : | January 2020 |
|---|---|
| Acquired alcohol : | 12.6° |
| Residual sugar : | 1.4 g/l |
| pH : | 3.10 |
| Yield : | 44 hl/ha |
| Optimum tasting : | 2021-2032 |
| Average age of vines : | 43 years |
| Sweetness index : | 2 |
| Soil : | East & South facing, Limestone/calcareous/siliceous |
Description of the wine Riesling Roche Calcaire 2017
As its names indicates, this wine is made from various limestone vineyard on the estate, but mostly from 1.2ha of Riesling planted by my father around the village of Gueberschwihr. Various very small vineyards are used for this wine, all too small to be vinified separately. Limestone soils are less precocious, have a higher water retaining capacity and therefore do not suffer as much from heat and hydric stress. The profile of the wine is usually more reductive, slower to develop with a higher acidity and will require more time in the bottle to become fully expressive and enjoyable. The higher acidity (and lower pH) is often the main reason why this wine is always fermenting very slowly and tends to keep some RS in some vintages like 2017! The bottling was very late in January 2020 !
Tasting notes
03/2019 : Intense pale yellow colour. Woaw, almost 2 years of fermentation, and the wine still shows a nose which is almost reductive and very young. Pure citrus and wet stones, very fresh. On the palate, the wine is crisp, saline and very vigourous. Impossible to guess the amount of residual sweetness here. The Riesling Calcaire 2017 is moving very slowly and showing no sign of being tired at all. It almost begs for aeration and more time. It definitely will take a few years to express its potential and the wait will be worth it.