Trimbach

Real nerve and dryness. Lots buried in there. Classic dry Riesling. Lots of reverberation. So different from 2009! 
Jancis Robinson - jancisrobinson.com, July 2016

Arguably the most iconic dry Riesling on the planet, Trimbach’s Clos St Hune is a 1.67-hectare vineyard that produces approximately just 8,000 bottles a year. It is traditionally aged for five years in the cellar after bottling, before release, and in great vintages, it is capable of drinking beautifully for another half century.

The 2011 is a classically styled vintage of this great Riesling. Not as exuberant as some warmer vintages, presently the wine is relatively taut with beautiful minerality. It still has the slightly glossy, polished palate-weight of this iconic wine. I expect it to open out in the next couple of years and drink for 20 more.

The rather unassuming pale lemon coloured wine belies all that awaits one on the nose and palate! This is a perfect lesson in understated and yet beautifully precise wine making. The nose is smoky, with hints of wet pebble and a mineralite and a touch of lime juice, lemon grass.

The palate is what I would refer to as “politely austere”, at one moment tightly packed and iron like, white stone fruit and yet with a poise and precision that only comes from one of the best terroir in the world. The laser like acidity enable the length goes on for a long time with a beautiful seam of salinity. This is a long term wine and will be truly spectacular. 2025 – 2035+
Stuart Rae, Private Account Manager

The Trimbach family is one of France’s greatest winemaking dynasties, having made wine in Alsace for over three centuries (since 1626) based in the picturesque town of Ribeauvillé.

If Zind Humbrecht produces wines of extravagant power at one end of the spectrum of excellence within Alsace wine making, then Trimbach definitely stands at the other extreme – “Restraint” is the watchword.  The Trimbach style is paraphrased perfectly by Hubert Trimbach and the family itself – “Concentrated not heavy; fruity, not sweet; bracing rather than fat; polite rather than voluptuous. Trimbach wines are reserved, steely, elegant, even aristocratic; never obvious or flashy.  We are Protestants.  Our wines have the Protestant style – vigour, firmness, a beautiful acidity, lovely freshness. Purity and cleanness, that’s Trimbach.” For those weary of the copious residual sugar found in so many of the contemporary Alsace wines, Trimbach’s are a refuge.

As the family moves into its 13th generation, with Pierre’s daughter Anne now working in the business (& Jean’s son Julian studying vine science at Dijon), Maison Trimbach remains a byword for fine dry Alsace Riesling. 

Famously controversial for opting out of the Grand Cru classification back in 1975 on account of the overly generous yields & low sugar levels (low quality) required, in the past five years the negociant has added 15 hectares of prime Grand Cru sites, notably in Osterberg, Geisberg, & Schlossberg, bringing their total to 45ha.  So the family are clearly not closing the door on the possibility of releasing single Grand Cru vineyard wines, albeit in tiny quantities. However they lament the fact that France’s supermarkets continue to buy up 75% of the region’s production, selling Grand Cru wines at around €7/bottle on the shelf.

Meanwhile their brands of (Riesling) Cuvee Frederic Emile, (Pinot Gris) Reserve Personnelle & (Gewurztraminer) Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre remain central  to the range, made from both own fruit & bought in fruit; they remain a clear step up in terroir finesse from the fruitier ‘Reserve’ lines.  Clos Ste. Hune is estate’s finest Riesling, from a 1.67ha ‘clos’ within Grand Cru Rosacker; the provenance readily communicated but still absent from the label.  So as winemaker Pierre Trimbach signs off his 34th vintage in charge, this is still very much an estate to watch.

These wines are considered the benchmark for quality, consistency and style.

Wow – there is a lot going on here! Mirabelle plum, blood orange, yuzu and a waxy, nut oil note on the nose. This is broad and structured, yet not as heady as Pinot Gris can be, there is a real sense of precision here amidst the weight of the wine. Only produced when the Trimbach family are happy it has the quality to merit the Reserve Personelle label, this was the stand out wine of the tasting for me. If you can resist the temptation, give this a couple of years in the cellar and then enjoy over the following decade. Simply put, the best Pinot Gris I have ever tasted and extraordinary value to boot. Wonderful.
Fergus Stewart, Private Account Manager

The Trimbach family is one of France’s greatest winemaking dynasties, having made wine in Alsace for over three centuries (since 1626) based in the picturesque town of Ribeauvillé.

If Zind Humbrecht produces wines of extravagant power at one end of the spectrum of excellence within Alsace wine making, then Trimbach definitely stands at the other extreme – “Restraint” is the watchword.  The Trimbach style is paraphrased perfectly by Hubert Trimbach and the family itself – “Concentrated not heavy; fruity, not sweet; bracing rather than fat; polite rather than voluptuous. Trimbach wines are reserved, steely, elegant, even aristocratic; never obvious or flashy.  We are Protestants.  Our wines have the Protestant style – vigour, firmness, a beautiful acidity, lovely freshness. Purity and cleanness, that’s Trimbach.” For those weary of the copious residual sugar found in so many of the contemporary Alsace wines, Trimbach’s are a refuge.

As the family moves into its 13th generation, with Pierre’s daughter Anne now working in the business (& Jean’s son Julian studying vine science at Dijon), Maison Trimbach remains a byword for fine dry Alsace Riesling. 

Famously controversial for opting out of the Grand Cru classification back in 1975 on account of the overly generous yields & low sugar levels (low quality) required, in the past five years the negociant has added 15 hectares of prime Grand Cru sites, notably in Osterberg, Geisberg, & Schlossberg, bringing their total to 45ha.  So the family are clearly not closing the door on the possibility of releasing single Grand Cru vineyard wines, albeit in tiny quantities. However they lament the fact that France’s supermarkets continue to buy up 75% of the region’s production, selling Grand Cru wines at around €7/bottle on the shelf.

Meanwhile their brands of (Riesling) Cuvee Frederic Emile, (Pinot Gris) Reserve Personnelle & (Gewurztraminer) Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre remain central  to the range, made from both own fruit & bought in fruit; they remain a clear step up in terroir finesse from the fruitier ‘Reserve’ lines.  Clos Ste. Hune is estate’s finest Riesling, from a 1.67ha ‘clos’ within Grand Cru Rosacker; the provenance readily communicated but still absent from the label.  So as winemaker Pierre Trimbach signs off his 34th vintage in charge, this is still very much an estate to watch.

These wines are considered the benchmark for quality, consistency and style.  

The south, southeast facing vines are on average 50 years old and lie on a predominantly limestone subsoil. These factors give this Riesling a unique flavour and remarkable fruit concentration. Clos Ste Hune is distinguished and refined with beautifully ripe fruit, pronounced minerality and a unique temperament. Serge Dubs (World’s Best Sommelier in 1989) commented that “if there is one Riesling in the world which every wine lover dreams of tasting and savouring, it is Clos Ste Hune.” It has its own signature and is sublime in great vintages with its exceptional capacity to age.

Only between 6 – 9,000 bottles are made of this wine each year. The product of the Rosacker vineyard in the Haut-Rhin village of Hunawihr, it was first released as such in 1919. Why Hunawihr you may ask, given the negoce is in Ribeauvillé: initially the Trimbachs had a simple family domaine, on the site of the now restaurant ‘Le Caveau de Vignerons’, before becoming a negociant in the 1930s. The 2009 vintage is watery transparent, with lime cordial intensity. It’s so electric, so racy and limpid, with real direction and intent; the palate an amazing sensation of lime sherbet space dust! Such excitement and thrill!
David Berry Green  

When one talks of Grand Cru status in white wines, we often fall into the habit of talking about Burgundy and the famed vineyards of Montrachet, Corton Charlemagne, etc.  Wines that often require a price tag easily into the mid to high hundreds and beyond.  There is an enclave of vines within a tiny region in Alsace that produces possibly one of the most age-worthy and complex white wines available – “Clos Ste Hune”, owned by the Trimbach family.  The 26ha of vines in Rosacker famously include a tiny 1.67ha vineyard that makes arguably the greatest Riesling in Alsace, Domaine Trimbach’s Clos-Ste-Hune.

This wine is complex and age-worthy. A dry expression of Riesling but with so much going on within its iron like grip that it’s hard to keep up. Always a touch richer and maybe less austere than its smaller sibling cuvee Frederic Emile, but far more complex with energy rich fruit and penetratingly long and persistent on the palate, full of grapefruit, quinine, Lemon pith, musk, the list goes on and on.
Stuart Rae - Private Account Manager