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Alsace: Odd Bottles

Alsace Alsace produces a brilliant array of wines just perfect for modern cuisine. I love them. As well as the tiny gathering of tasting notes below there are a number of domaine profiles that may be of interest, links in the left-hand menu. Click to locate stockists:

Materne Haegelin Riesling Bollenberg 1997: Good lemon yellow hue with just the barest hint of a green tinge. This wine has a powerful bouquet of lemon and lime fruits and orange blossom, with complimentary floral, mineral and green apple aromas. A deliciously balanced palate, fine and upright on entry, with a lick of richness coming through on the midpalate. Good acidity makes this an excellent food wine. More lemon and limes, which combine with a flourish of waxy, lanolin richness on the finish. Lovely stuff at this price. (18/6/01)

Materne Haegelin Tokay Pinot-Gris 1997: A pleasant, mid-gold hue gives no clues to the enticing nose that awaits. Spicy, fruit salad aromas leap out of the glass. Very forward. The palate has surprising weight, and is nicely structured with good acidity to back up the full body. More delicious, mouth-watering fruit salad flavours. A very enjoyable wine. (14/6/00) Retaste: A pale golden wine. A wonderful, enticing nose, full of honey, pineapples and other tropical fruits. Full bodied palate, quite 'fat' and nicely textured, but lots of alcohol apparent on the midpalate becoming quite obvious and unbalanced on the finish. Full of peach, apricot and mango fruit. Overall somewhat disjointed, and with a bitter twist on the length. Seems to have fallen apart since last tasted one year ago. Good though. (11/6/01)

Albert Metz Gewurztraminer (Alsace, France) 2000: A pale wine, with a fairly classic, aromatic nose of lychees, perfume and spice. There's good weight on the palate, with good typicity. There are hints of crispy, smoked bacon, with banana, more lychees and spice. The texture is fairly fat, and the acidity somewhat low, although there is a little backbone coming through on the endpalate. Although not a fine Gewurztraminer (spend a few more quid for Trimbach or Kuentz-Bas for that) this is a fair introduction to this grape without too much outlay. Quite good. (11/6/02)