Zind-Humbrecht | Alsace | Riesling Clos Windsbuhl | 2018 | 1500ml | bio

Description

Product description for Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl 2018 (bio)

Wine Information

The Clos Windsbuhl is located on an old sedimentary limestone from the Secondary Period, at a very high elevation and bordering the forest, yet with a late-ripening climate.

Vine Information

The soil composition influences the character of this wine in that the magnesium-rich soil lends the structure a certain “grainy” element and also an acidic note, which can occasionally lead to an early end to fermentation.

Colour

Dense, slightly muted golden yellow.

Nose

The nose of the 2018 Riesling Clos Windsbuhl demands a decanter, as only with the necessary contact with oxygen does this limestone monument begin to reveal itself. There is little fruit, but initially notes of almonds, light nuts, wine yeast, delicate smoky hints, and light tobacco emerge from the glass. After a longer opening, pomelo, pink grapefruit, and small red apples emerge. Density, depth, and exuberant minerality are the attributes that characterize this spectacular wine, which already promises great things in its aroma.

Palate

Distinctive, very dry, and incredibly precise with challenging spice and crystalline saltiness, it hits the tongue and immediately gets the saliva flowing. Similar to the nose, it is characterized by nutty, spicy, and yeasty notes. The fruit, still discreetly in the background, is reminiscent of citrus and apple peel. This almost Burgundian-like wine should be left in the cellar for a few years; it will thank you with a veritable explosion of complexity.

Recommendation

Those impatient to open it now are advised to decant it at least a day in advance and enjoy it not too cold from large Burgundy glasses.

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Keywords: Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl 2018 bio Alsace France

Wine Advocate

Score: 94

The pale lime-yellow 2018 Riesling Clos Windsbuhl opens with an intense and complex, yeasty, flinty and saline bouquet of perfectly ripe, super ripe and even stewed but healthy fruit aromas. From vines averaging 44 years of age on calcareous Muschelkalk soils in a south, southeast-facing cru in Hunawihr, this is a dense, very complex and sustainable dry Riesling that starts very fine and elegant on the palate and is concentrated and intense, with fine, saline acidity, and it develops a deep, pure yet still challenging, vigorous finish due to its youth and structure. The aftertaste is enormously long and salivating. Very promising, Bottled in January 2020 with 12.5% alcohol and a natural cork. Tasted in January 2023.
Stephan Reinhardt

Vinous

Score: 96

One of the standouts in this range, the 2018 Riesling Clos Windsbuhl is incredibly vivid in the glass. Time in the glass brings out myriad layers of flavor and dimension. Orange confit, crushed rocks, mint and more exotic notes all meld together in an airy, weightless wine that has so much to offer. The 2018 is at once intense but also carries itself with a real sense of grace.
— Antonio Galloni
Drinking window: 2024 – 2038
Review date: Oct 2020

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