Biodynamic. Eddy Faller explains that his Altenbourg Pinot Noir exhibits a more velvety structure than the Schlossberg-raised wine (below). To highlight each wine’s origins, the winemaking is almost identical, with a 10-day cold soak, followed by up to two weeks on skins, partial whole-bunch fermentation and extended aging in predominantly old oak. Plantings are 10,000 vines per hectare using mass selections from the Clos des Epeneaux in Pommard. To recycle Pigott’s line for the 2020 release, ‘In a blind tasting you could easily mistake this for a top 1er Cru wine from Beaune in Burgundy!’

This wine is named after this Schlossberg lieu-dit’s cadastral name, Au Château. The building referenced in the name is the iconic Château de Kaysersberg, whose ruins preside over the town and lie a stone’s throw from the western boundary of the Schlossberg Grand Cru. With precious few bottles, we have yet to taste this release. However, Eddy Faller explains that the granitic soils give this bottling a more linear and ‘smoky’ mineral style compared to the rounder, more supple limestone-raised Altenbourg. Cropped from steeply terraced, pre-clonal era 1960s vines, it was fermented with 20% bunches and aged for two years in Burgundian barrels (20% new); Pigott’s note below reflects a terrific year for Alsace Pinot and the great strides Weinbach has made under the current generation

A blend of 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Semillon from Chateau Cos d''Estournel, the landmark producer from Medoc. Sourced from their vineyards in the south of St-Estephe, this detailed and gloriously textured white wine displays the complexities requisite of cellarable Bordeaux blanc wines. The wine is drinkable immediately, but will also reward those considering some mellowing and honeyed complexity that comes with cellaring.

The harvest began very early, on the 5th September, and lasted 9 weeks. This made is possible to reflect all the diversity of a year in which both flowering and veraison were very spread out. Picking began especially early at Yquem in 2014. Some 25% of the crop was brought in before the 15th of September, providing a rare and precious background of acidity.