2019 Meyer-Fonné Pinot Gris Réserve
VARIETAL: Pinot Gris
REGION: Alsace, FR
VITICULTURE: Organic
WINEMAKER: Félix Meyer
The 2019 Pinot Gris Réserve again offers direct, intense and elegant aromas of ripe and orchard fruits along with discreet but telltale smoky aromas and gentle spice. In the mouth it is fresh, juicy vibrant and, as always, showing good clarity and definition. It is rich in intensity but has freshness of fruit and it is lifted by the perfect amount of refreshing acidity, as well as a lingering grip and salinity. It has 11 grams of residual sugar so not totally dry but dry tasting - a bit tighter in style and weight to the excellent 2018 vintage that was so popular.
"Our vineyards are now mostly located on the hillsides, so the historic part of the Alsatian vineyards", says Félix. Only about 25% of the current holdings of 14 hectares of vines are located in the valley floor and are exclusively planted with either Pinot Blanc or Auxerrois. All the noble grape varieties, however, are cultivated in historic vineyards in the hillsides, which give predominantly dry and nervy, terroir-driven wines full of expression and mineral tension. There are no less than five Grand Cru vineyards—Kaefferkopf, Wineck-Schlossberg, Sporen, Furstentum and Schoenenbourg—that are organically farmed and cultivated and they all give deep, racy and firmly structured wines that intermix ripe fruit flavors and seductive textures with a vital and mineral backbone.
The winemaking is very traditional here, since most of the investments have been made in the low-yielding vineyards, with top old-vines parcels in the best sites, high density plantings and the vitalization of the soils. No synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides are used at all. The fermentation of the naturally cleared musts takes place with native yeasts in either stainless steel or traditional oak, and after racking, the wines are kept on the lees until May (Alsace AOC) and respectively September (single vineyards) before bottling.