Albert Boxler Pinot Gris, Alsace, France

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This gorgeous white walks a fine line between being rich and mouthcoating on one side, and bright and graceful on the other. The result is a vivid, medium-bodied version, with hints of honeycomb and candied ginger accenting flavors of peach, papaya, elderflower and stony minerals. Drink now through 2028.??–AN??Region: France / Alsace Select to Add

The Boxler 2007 Pinot Gris incorporates a significant portion of fruit from his two crus, sacrificed in order to obtain sufficient volume since lower-elevation Pinot Gris had been nearly wiped out by hail. Alkaline and smoky notes in the nose carry onto a palate that features ripe peach and a hint of chocolate as well as a bittersweet concentration of zesty citrus oil pungency and fruit pit bitterness that I would have associated more with Riesling. The balance of opulence and minerality here is unusual (for the grape) and impressive. This should show well for at least another 3-4 years. Jean Boxler emphasizes the contrast between one of the earliest and hastiest harvest ever at his family’s estate – “just three days after I finished bottling the 2005s, and then every day, including Sunday” – in order to salvage clean fruit in 2006; and the protracted harvest of 2007. “In fact,” he explains, “I started in 2006 with the intention of harvesting grapes for cremant, but they were already too ripe.” Thanks to meticulous vineyard practices and early picking, a surprisingly consistent and satisfying collection resulted. “Half the fruit was already on the ground,” he observes, by the time he could pick his best sites. Boxler’s crew knows the difference between good and bad botrytis, he assured me, yet even so, each carried a second bucket into which to drop any fruit about which uncertainty remained, and those lots were subjected to test pressings and severe scrutiny, generally ending up discarded. Boxler’s best 2007s are predictably finer, more structured, and more refined, although the vintage’s superiority is only obvious when it comes to single-vineyard bottlings. “I could live with a vintage like it every year,” he quips. When asked about his aspirations and his role in upholding the reputation of his family’s extraordinary estate, Jean Boxler says he does not want to get any bigger so as to keep complete control, and adds that he doesn’t have a single day free from his vineyards and cellar to go out and sell wine anywhere, so Americans should please not feel offended that he hasn’t – save for a brief, youthful stage in Oregon – ever visited them!Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185