Riesling TRADITION 2008

It is the Pinot Noir of white wines! Riesling is our most demanding variety as it is also the latest ripening. Dry and elegant, it expresses its best on our steepest slopes with a most complex minerality.

Climatic conditions were a carbon-copy of the excellent 2007 vintage. Budburst at the end of April was quite late, but May was warm and sunny so flowering began on 15th June and took more than a fortnight to complete.
July and August were particularly cool with hardly any rise in temperature, but in mid-September the Indian Summer arrived without a drop of rain. The sky stayed bright but temperatures were relatively cool.
As a result, the grapes ripened slowly but fully, perfectly healthy and with excellent acidity.
The 2008 Alsace vintage was already born great but may prove to be exceptional.

Harvested exclusively by hand from clay and limestone vineyards in a dozen of the most favoured localities in and around Riquewihr with a high percentage of estate grapes, some from the Schoenenbourg.

The grapes are taken in small tubs to the presses, which are filled by gravity, without any pumping or other mechanical intervention.
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