Domaine Albert Boxler Muscat d'Alsace Brand

點擊次數(shù)：1852

Boxler’s 2008 Muscat d’Alsace Brand – this year comprising nearly one-half small-berried Alsace Muscat – displays an almost dizzying aromatic amalgam of apricot and its kernel; coffee; and a greenhouse-like profusion of leafing and flowering things including bergamot, sage flower, and orange blossom. A subtle but inescapable sense of sweetness manages to beautifully support a lusciously juicy abundance of apricot, white peach and Persian melon on a palate suffused with mouthwatering salinity and underlain by a sense of stone that sets up a Riesling-like call-and-response with fruit, herbs, and flowers. This is one of those rare examples of Alsace Muscat that unites yet transcends its classic virtues, offering the dynamic complexity and minerality of a great Riesling, with comparability to reflect the character of a great site. It will be worth following for at least 12-15 years, though needless to say, don’t miss out on delighting in some young. If you want to comprehend the character of Jean Boxler relates that in 2009 he picked some parcels of young wines early due to stress, then sold off the juice; and any under 15 years’ age he didn’t even bother to pick. Eventually, when he harvested his older vines and best sites, the sugar levels were the same – but not the flavors. He deftly charted a course with most of the resulting wines between alcohol and residual sugar, but to the extent it was unavoidable, sinned on the side of sweetness. From 2008, almost predictably given the track record at this address, Boxler rendered sharply focused, minerally complex, yet seductively fruit-filled wines that should prove excellent both as keepers and as partners with cuisine. Boxler compares these wines with his 2002s and finds then “definitely more interesting than the 2001s.” While most of the 2008s finished fermenting already by Christmas – which is par for the course chez Boxler – he points out that several of the extraordinary wines from the Brand lingered into spring. (For some detail on among other things Boxler’s different Riesling parcels, see my report in issue 188.)Importer: Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 757-8185

Boxler’s oily-textured 2006 Muscat d’Alsace Brand – almost entirely Ottonel – features impressions of chocolate-covered orange peel, dried apricot, and bay in what is at one and the same time an easily recognizable, lightly-bitter expression of its grape and a reflection of extreme ripeness and a harvest with botrytis at the gate. I would plan on drinking it by the end of this year. 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