Riesling Roche Calcaire
2022
Olivier Humbrecht is one of the world's most renowned winegrowers. He is a Master of Wine and has been described by Robert Parker as the greatest white winemaker on earth. Yet he is very soft spoken, humble, and self-deprecating, which makes him perfectly suited to his assumed role as a global ambassador of wine. He is a champion of terroir, biodynamic farming principles, and non-interventionist winemaking, whose family have been winegrowers in Alsace for 12 generations (since 1620). He is...
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The Humbrecht family birthplace is in the village of Gueberschwihr, where this wine comes from. Originating from many little vineyards dispersed around the village, they all have a limestone base as common factor. Limestone is often associated with marl or richer elements that make such vineyard much more drought resistant. This is a clear advantage in hot and dry vintages like 2022: the vines grow easily and are capable to retain acidity. Here, the soils are also quite rich. Calcaire often means tighter, leaner, higher acidity wines, but also Riesling wines that have a serious ageing potential. These soils also have a better metabolism and that can be seen on the 2022 vintage. A very warm year, but yet this wine has an acidity and pH often only found in colder vintages. Long fermentation, full lees contact until bottling, completely dry wine.
Pale yellow colour. Expressive Riesling nose typical from limestone origin: citrus, light mineral notes, stony flavours, honey. Vivacious palate, crisp, amazing acidity and freshness. This is a very classic Roche Calcaire that finishes bone dry with a lacy texture. This wine will still need some time to open up and it is highly recommended to decant it in the first years after bottling.
Still very young, this needs some aeration for the acacia, lemon-cream and beeswax notes to emerge. On the medium-to full-bodied palate there’s a great marriage of creaminess and ripeness, then the wine flips in the chalky direction, the mineral character building impressively at the long finish. From biodynamically grown grapes.
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This ample and vibrant dry riesling has an intensely chalky and flinty personality. Stacks of Amalfi lemon and ripe grapefruit character, too. Extremely stony finish with so much depth and energy. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
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Brimming with star fruit, bergamot and flint, this is a dangerously fresh and minerally dry riesling for this warm and dry vintage. Terrific drive right through the bone-dry palate, the slate and Amalfi lemon zest at the finish strident. From biodynamically grown grapes
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Very attractive yellow fruit with the emphasis on Amalfi lemon, but also some stone fruit and just a hint of caramel. Very elegant and polished, this has vibrant acidity that very neatly matches the chalky character from the tip of your tongue right to the back of the mouth. Only just beginning to open up! From biodynamically grown grapes.
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A glint of flinty reduction entices on the cool, lemon nose on this wine. Lemon becomes more precise on the palate, tingling with freshness and pithy zest. The wine has cool, expansive depth, despite the hot vintage. Vivid lemon freshness persists to the long, bright finish, where zestiness lingers.
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From vineyards around Gueberschwihr and a small portion of young vines from the Hengst, the 2020 Riesling Roche Calcaire offers a clear, fresh and stony, lemony bouquet of crushed limestones and even flint stones. Full-bodied, pure and tensioned on the palate, this is a limestone-driven, silky-textured, elegant and refreshing Riesling with fine tannins and a finish that is pretty intense, finely bitter and quite long. This is an excellent wine for its price range.
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The 2022 Riesling Roche Calcaire is harvested across the limestone soils of the estate from vines that do not make it into the single vineyards. In 2022, this was restricted to the marl and limestone soils of the village of Gueberschwihr, around the Goldert Grand Cru, a site that Humbrecht calls "virtually drought-proof." The nose still flickers with yeasty funk and lovely, flinty reduction, but even this funkiness does not obscure the vibrant lemon and orange peel. The palate is fresh but so buffered, with stunning limestone smoothness wrapping itself around a central vein of bright freshness. This is lip-smacking and approachable. It's friendly and bright already. The finish shines with a tart yellow apple. (Bone-Dry)
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