2021 Meyer-Fonné Riesling Réserve
WINEMAKER: Félix Meyer
REGION: Alsace, FR
VARIETY: Riesling
VITICULTURE: Organic
This DRY Alsace Riesling is always a superb wine for the price as it contains fruit from the younger vines from the estate (no purchased fruit), some from Grand Cru sources, particularly Wineck-Schlossberg. This year again it shows precise and very vibrant aromas of crisp bright citrus fruits and red apple with an attractive floral lift. Fresh and tactile, with a supple mouthfeel that glides into a sizzling finish. It finishes dry, saline, full and long. This is always a superb dry Riesling and is most definitely in 2021. Top
"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.