About this WINE
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
Lucas Rieffel continues to bang the drum for Alsace Pinot with this gorgeous 'little' wine from the 2013 vintage. So called 'nature' because he doesn't use any sulphur during vinification (but does in the vineyard), it's also whole bunch pressed, naturally, and no pump is used during the ageing or at bottling; all a la main! he makes only 5,000 bts mind so this is very much his third 'child' (after Karl and Alphonse!).
From vines on the clay, sandstone and silt, in Bas-Côteaux near Mittelbergheim, planted in the late 1980s, the fruit was macerated for 13 days in stainless-steel before transfer to barriques. One is struck by its vibrant colour (no hint of browning whatsoever), the intense cerise, redcurrant confit zip on the nose; it's so beautifully fluid and soft to taste you just want to stroke it! Sensual, pretty, lots of detail, of crunchy red berried fruit and a hint of nutmeg. Fabulous!
David Berry Green
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