2007 Pinot Gris Reserve Personnelle

Given the quality of Trimbach’s least-expensive (“Reserve”) 2007 Pinot Gris, I was salivating in anticipation of their 2007 Pinot Gris Reserve Personnelle. Its 14.5% alcohol and 12 grams residual sugar are only a bit higher those of the amazing corresponding 2005 (lauded in issue 175), and the wine is no less remarkable. Toasted nuts and dried mushrooms mingle with ripe peach, quince, and mango on a oily palate, and this finishes ravishingly, with opulently ripe, almost confitured fruits and a faint hint of sweetness, balanced by smoky and bitter notes of snuffed candle wick, quinine, and toasted nuts, as well as by a fine sense of freshness. There is more than a little Chenin-like about this (as there is about the corresponding “Reserve” bottling), and I expect it will be worth following for at least two decades, even if few will. ”The yeasts were very efficient in 2007,” notes Jean Trimbach, pointing to a collection of wines several of which are below one gram in residual sugar. The grapes and people did good work, too: I cannot recall a collection at this address that was more consistently fine. Only three special bottlings were essayed by Trimbach in 2006, all Riesling, of which the Frederic Emile and Clos Ste. Hune are among the high points of this vintage in Alsace. Importer: Esprit Du Vin French Wine Merchants & Select European Estates, 48 Harbor Park Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050; www.edvwines.com