| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Alsace |
| Colour | White |
| Type | Still |
Luminous straw-yellow. The broad nose hints at herbs, spices and ripe orchard fruit and is really very typical of a wine born from granite soils. Then large and broad on entry too; spice and herb notes complicate peach and pear fruit flavors. Finishes long and pure, like a morning stroll in a forest full of small yellow flowers and spring water, but also nicely saline and tactile. Though it’s easy to recognize this wine as coming from the Brand when tasting blind, I also think the 2015 is a little more youthfully reticent than usual. Humbrecht told me the Brand Riesling is on a roll, and he wouldn’t know which to pick as his favorite in the last three vintages (the 2013, ’14 and ’15). Forget about this in your cellar for 10 years; at 13.7% alcohol and 6 g/L residual sugar, it’s a powerful wine that tastes off-dry, and cellaring it will help it blossom into something even more special than it already is.
This is a very ripe and concentrated wine with caramelized pineapple, smoke and spice. A fireworks display of minerals on the palate that doesn't want to stop, but the texture is also stunning and that follows through into the super-long sea-salt finish. Great now, but has 20-30 years of aging potential. Made from biodynamic grapes. Ecocert certified.
From granite soils, Humbrecht's 2015 Riesling Brand is terribly pure, fine and highly precise, delivering crushed stones and lemon perfume, as if it were another Sommerberg. Exciting! On the palate, this is a lush yet pure, intense and ripe, yet mineral and piquant Riesling; it has great elegance, noble intensity and great terroir expression. What a stimulating richness but also purity here, a beautifully fine tannin grip (as if it was Pinot Noir), and a long and persistent finish. This is a must buy of the vintage. Olivier compares the 2015 to 1983, which was also a very warm year and delivered elegant wines. This is pure, rich, lean, piquant and mineral, very stony, lush and fruity. Most of all, it is full of energy and fascination! A must buy!
