Zind-Humbrecht | Alsace | Riesling Brand Grand Cru | 2020 | 750ml | bio

Description

Product description for Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand Grand Cru 2020 (bio)

Wine Info

Olivier Humbrecht

The Grand Cru Brand is located on a bedrock of biotite granite (with two micas) on the heights of the village of Turckheim, facing the Vosges Mountains. This terroir, renowned in the history of Alsace wine, probably owes its fame to the intensity and brilliance of its wines. Located at the end of the deep Munster Valley, it faces south on steep slopes and benefits from a hot and dry climate, but also windy, with cool air sweeping down the valley at night. Called Turckheim granite, it is rich in black mica, which, when decomposed, releases clay with a high exchange surface, guaranteeing the minerality of the wines.

Vineyard Information

The grapes ripen quickly in Brand, especially when they benefit from favorable summer rainfall, as in 2020, when 80 mm of water fell in just a few days on the first weekend of August. Brand is probably the winery’s terroir that requires the greatest precision in choosing the Riesling harvest date. It is regularly the first Grand Cru site to be harvested, but also one of the sites that takes the longest to complete its fermentation!

Color

Brilliant golden yellow.

Nose

The 2020 Riesling Brand is still somewhat shy, so it urgently needs to be poured into the carafe with plenty of energy. A sea of aromas reminiscent of grapefruit, lime, wet stones, and thyme is accompanied by the intensely pronounced minerality of the granite rock on which it grew.

Palate

It is firm and somewhat austere on the palate, the taut fruit glides across the tongue with intense acidity and saltiness. It practically challenges the taster with its youthfulness and intensity. A wine that still has a long journey ahead of it before it reveals its full beauty. Rieslings like these are made to last forever and, as an Alsace lover, always make my heart leap! If you want to enjoy it now, you should definitely decant it over several hours and serve it in a sufficiently large glass. A few days of opening will allow it to gain more expression.

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Keywords: Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand Grand Cru 2020 bio Alsace France

Wine Advocate

Score: 96

The 2020 Riesling Brand is from vines planted in the 1950s (predominantly), 1970s and 1920s. Deep, pure, intense and flinty on the complex and refreshing mineral nose that also reveals perfectly ripe (tropical) fruit aromas (mango, passion fruit), this is a powerful, rich and saline Riesling with great intensity, power and compact but fine tannins. The finish is long, intense and salivating, but the aging potential is even greater. 13.7% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in April 2022.
Stephan Reinhardt

Producer website: http://www.zindhumbrecht.fr/