An eszencia-like selection of botrytized berries resulted in the 2001 Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Theobald Larmes de Lave (“tears of lava” from this ancient volcano) which yeasts apparently just managed to carry across the threshold of legal vinosity. Pure peach and apricot preserves and white raisin in the nose and on the palate are laced with mysterious smoke and subtle citricity. The combination of creamy thickness with lightness and lift is amazing – although familiar from some of the greatest Tokaji or German T.B.A.. The finish is a bit simple – but simply endless. I am hesitant to go on record when it comes to a barely-wine of this sort because at such freakishly high levels of residual sugar (and low alcohol) it will probably take more than a decade to see into its soul. Certainly four years would be as nothing in the life of a wine such as the 2001 “Larme de Lave.” Bernard Schoffit’s 2004s are all to some degree marked by the vintage rains, but his Rangen de Thann vineyards were drenched for eight days in a row at the end of October, necessitating virtually wholesale de-classification of what little was picked. In his Harth vineyards just outside Colmar, it was the 2005 vintage that resulted in below normal yields, thanks to desiccation and botrytis. Schoffit generates opulent, rich, generally low-acid wines from the latter sites, as is perfectly illustrated by his “l(fā)ow end” wines.Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800