Maison Trimbach : Riesling "Grand Cru Schlossberg" 2016

A subtle, light- to medium-bodied white that opens in your glass, featuring an overtone of petrol layered with white peach, lemon peel, crushed pine and Marcona almond notes. Mouthwatering on the lasting finish, which echoes the rich minerality. Best from 2021 through 2030. 2,000 cases made, 75 cases imported.

A steely and fruity white with sliced green-apple and lemon aromas and flavors. Medium body. Dry. Crisp acidity. Long and energetic. Minerally at the end. Drink or hold.

Pale vivid straw. Perfumed nose of lemon verbena, jasmine and white stone fruit. Enters ripe and juicy, then slightly more austere, but precise stone fruit and herbal flavors linger nicely on the long, youthfully chewy finish. Trimbach makes this wine from a 1.6-hectare parcel of 35-year-old vines on extremely poor soils of mainly granite with very little topsoil (save for the plot’s middle section, which is more fertile). The Trimbach family uses only the vines located above and below the central part, those planted on the poorest and thinnest soils of the site, to make this wine. Pierre Trimbach tells me that every time he exceeds yields of 35 hL/ha here, the wine just isn’t good enough to bottle. Trimbach bought this vineyard in 2012 and declassified it in both 2012 and 2013, so the first vintage was the 2014. The vines are located right above the Chateau in Kientzheim.

The cuvée is hitting its stride; it has only existed since 2014. The wine tastes dry and precise, with a striking saline attack, purity and verticality. The finish is intense and vibrant, without the mouthfeel of Frédéric-Emile or Clos Sainte Hune, but the terroirs are different.