An expressive Riesling, with yellow peach, guava and pear grounded by a bed of crushed flint. Shows chamomile and honey notes that add warmth to the expansive palate, while a succulent beam of acidity brings balance to the bitter, chalky finish.
This ample and vibrant dry riesling has an intensely chalky and flinty personality. Stacks of Amalfi lemon and ripe grapefruit character, too. Extremely stony finish with so much depth and energy.
From vineyards around Gueberschwihr and a small portion of young vines from the Hengst, the 2020 Riesling Roche Calcaire offers a clear, fresh and stony, lemony bouquet of crushed limestones and even flint stones. Full-bodied, pure and tensioned on the palate, this is a limestone-driven, silky-textured, elegant and refreshing Riesling with fine tannins and a finish that is pretty intense, finely bitter and quite long. This is an excellent wine for its price range.
Behind its juicy fruit scents, this wine’s aromas are like a bouquet of tender herbs. Fennel fronds, dill, tarragon and celery leaves are fresh and inviting. The wine’s plump fruit flavors and barely there honeyed sweetness come as a bit of a surprise, but as with all the best Rieslings, they’re kept in check by cleansing acidity. Those herbaceous notes also carry through into the medium-length, savory, green finish.
This wine is a blend from parcels around Gueberschwihr, the vines averaging 44 years old, along with some young-vine fruit from the Hengst vineyard. Olivier Humbrecht finds
that these limestone soils retain moisture for the vines, so they don’t suffer from hydric stress. The fruit they deliver is focused on citrus, with notes of orange and lime tightened up by a seashell minerality. There are delicate scents of narcissus carried by the buzz of acidity.