Muscat TRADITION 2010

Not a sweet wine as many people expect it to be, but a dry, crisp and grapey Muscat, full of aromas.

The winter of 2010 was particularly harsh, with more than 30 days below zero, and temperatures dropped as far as -17°C. Budburst on 8 April was early, but flowering which began on 10 June took almost 3 weeks to finish due to cool temperatures. July was exceptionally hot and sunny, before cold, damp and rainy weather set in throughout August and into September. Ideal weather conditions returned on 11 September, with not a drop of rain for 6 weeks. Our harvest began on 27 September and ended on 26 October. Maturity reached record levels, the highest for 50 years, with good acidity, similar to 1996. Crop size was 30% below average, and even lower for Gewurztraminer.
Superb wines with magnificent balance, purity and fruit. 2010 is a great classic vintage, with good ageing potential.

This wine is partly composed of 2 young estate plots, including one on the Schoenenbourg planted with Muscat d'Alsace.
Harvested exclusively by hand from the very beginning of harvest to ensure perfectlt sound grapes and good natural levels of acidity.

Skin contact on Muscat in 2010. The grapes are destemmed into the presses, and left to macerate until next morning.
After pressing, the must is decanted for a few hours, then fermented in temperature-controlled barrels or vats (at 18 to 24°C). The wine is racked just once, before natural clarification during the course of the winter. The following spring, the wine is lightly filtered just before bottling, and the bottles are then aged in our cellars until released for sale.
The whole production of this wine is closed with DIAM the cork without the risk of cork taint.

Photos of bottles and labels, 3 definitions, max 300dpi