Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022 - 54

Top 100 Wineries
FRANCE | ALSACE
Zind-Humbrecht
A standard-bearer for terroir traditions in Alsace, Olivier Humbrecht
brings dynamic experimentation to bear in the age of climate change.
OLIVIER HUMBRECHT
oliVier HumbrecHt's slate of 2019s Put
his estate in our Top 100 for the fifth time in
seven years, with especially strong showings
from gewurztraminer, riesling and muscat.
As he prepared for an early harvest at the
end of August, 2022, Humbrecht explained
that the 2019 vintage benefited from coming
after a sizable 2018 crop; the plants were
not under pressure to overproduce. That
2018 bounty, in turn, was the vines' reaction
to losing up to 70% of their fruit in 2017
after a short winter and early budbreak led
to devastating frost. Humbrecht is adapting
to these generally earlier, warmer and
dryer conditions, noting that earlier harvests
leave more wild yeast on the grapes' skins,
giving earlier and stronger fermentations,
and higher acidities. Unless a vintage presents
ideal conditions, he says he has moved
away from Vendange Tardive and SGN
wines. In some terroirs, Humbrecht is opting
for a more vigorous rootstock, to capture
increasingly precious water more efficiently.
Looking to the future, Humbrecht and his
son Pierre-Emile-the 13th generation of
the family to tend vines-will experiment
with mondeuse, cornalin and red grapes
from Austria. -S.S.; tasting notes by J.G.
2019 Alsace Grand Cru Brand Riesling ($90,
96 points) Riesling ripens early on Brand's
sunny, sheltered hillside of sandy granite and
black mica: Here, the fruit seems to blossom out
of mineral dust, the structure wholly integrated
into the peach-skin and pink-peppercorn scents,
the texture fleshy yet racy. A long, powerful wine,
this is open now, with the grand structure to age.
FOUNDED:
1959
OWNER/WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:
Olivier Humbrecht
ACRES OWNED:
100
ANNUAL PRODUCTION:
2,000 cases imported
ESTATE GROWN:
100%
FARMING PRACTICES:
Organic, certified by
Ecocert; Biodynamic,
certified by Biodyvin)
IMPORTER:
Kobrand,
Purchase, NY
54
2019 Alsace Grand Cru Goldert Muscat ($85,
94 points) A potently dry muscat from deep,
rich, soil over oolithic limestone bedrock, this is
heady and intense, opening to layers of flavor,
from lemon and grapefruit to bitter almond and
litchi. Acidity drives the rich flavors, ready to play
off a lobster roll or roast veal with mushrooms.
2019 Alsace Grand Cru Rangen de Thann
Clos Saint Urbain Gewurztraminer ($115, 92
points) Rangen de Thann's hillside of volcanic
rock and sandstone faces south; while the altitude
slows ripening, the cold winds at flowering
limited the crop. This is a bold, concentrated
wine with a wild range of flavor impressions,
from yellow raspberries to tart strawberries and
desert succulents in bloom. There's a tannic
spice, like the bitterness of flower petals, powering
the lush, silken textures.
WINE & SPIR IT S
F ALL 202 2
FRANCE | BURGUNDY
Domaine de Bellene
A second-generation vigneron assembles his own exceptional domaine.
SYLVAIN DEBORD
Nicolas Potel grew uP at VolNay's
Domaine de la Pousse d'Or, where his father,
Gérard, had built an international reputation.
Lighting out on his own, the young
Potel worked at Moss Wood in Australia's
Margaret River, later in Sonoma's Russian
River Valley with Tom Dehlinger and,
back in Burgundy, taking turns at Matrot
and Roumier. He built a powerful local
network and, eventually, started his own
négociant business. By 2005, when several
vignerons offered to lease him their vines,
Potel established Domaine de Bellene, creating
a home base a year later in Beaune,
where he restored a historic property to
serve as his cellars. Starting with 34 acres, he
has since built the domaine to 62.5, focusing
on old-to-ancient vine parcels, sustained
through organic farming. At his oldest parcel,
planted at Beaune Grèves in 1904, his
team has identified nine vines (out of a study
of 2,000) that are free of virus, now the basis
of a mass selection. There are old vines at
the villages level as well, including VosneRomanée's
Les Quartiers de Nuits, which
date to 1927. Here, they are planted in a
heavy clay-limestone soil that may, in fact,
provide the kind of moisture-holding capacity
now an asset with climate change. -J.G.
2019 Côte de Beaune 1er Cru Les Perrières
($127, 94 points) This young-vine chardonnay
ably handled its aging in French oak (half
new), giving a wine with lemon-balm and lemoncustard
richness, tight and luscious. The fruit
shades from crisp and vibrant Asian pear to a
redder cast of peach at the pit, electric in its racy
length, charged with limestone savor.
FOUNDED:
2005
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:
Sylvain Debord
OWNER:
Nicolas Potel
ACRES OWNED:
62.5
ANNUAL PRODUCTION:
10,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN:
100%
IMPORTER:
Loosen Bros. USA,
Oregon City, OR
2019 Santenay Les Charmes Dessus ($52,
92 points) This wine comes from a parcel of
young vines planted between two hills, one being
the slope of Clos Rousseau. It's creamy and ripe
in 2019, with a refreshing rainwater clarity perfumed
by fresh meadow herbs. The ripeness
shows in notes of yellow plum and oranges, even
as the wine maintains a delicious taut briskness.
2019 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots
($275, 95 points) Potel's domaine includes just
over a half-acre of vines in Les Suchots, dating
to 1937, neighboring Romanée St-Vivant. More
than 80 years on, those vines produced fruit
with the cherries-in-heaven character of a grand
cru, the wine's depths and fragrance delivered
with the cool of late-fifties jazz. Vibrant, youthfully
tannic and tight, this is a 2019 to cellar.
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2022

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