Shriveled but healthy berries dominated the crop for Bursin’s 2011 Riesling Zinnkoepfle Vendange Tardive, which displays a greenhouse-like aromatic amalgam of leafing and flowering things and a strikingly lime sorbet-like, green tea-infused palate. Like many nobly sweet wines of its vintage, this lush elixir is rather obviously sweet, to the point where nuance is missing or covered-over in the finish. Still, it’s impressively rich and texturally alluring as well as complex until one gets to the finish. I would suggest following it through 2020.
Agathe Bursin’s sector of Alsace was one of those cursed by frost on top of poor flowering in 2010, so that she got only half of what she considers a normal crop. Even so, Bursin didn’t begin picking it until October 10, her latest-ever commencement of harvest. Not only did the flavors need to ripen, acids also needed to drop on the vine because Bursin was determined on principle not to de-acidify. In 2011, she began picking on September 1. Like many growers, though, she ended up with a number of nobly sweet bottlings from 2011, and with highly variable success. The one Bursin wine that I completely don’t “get” though, is a blend of Sylvaner, Riesling and Pinot Gris from the Zinnkoepfle called “L’Esprit de Calcaire.” She matures the wine in barrique, which then dominates its aromas and dries out its finish.
Importer: A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29
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