2017 Friedrich Becker Sankt Paul Spätburgunder Großes Gewächs

The vineyard is south of Weissenburg in Alsace, named after the former outpost of the monastery there. The soil is based on a large limestone rock with a very low horizon of clayey loamy topsoil. Hand-picked,  destemmed and fermented in open oak vats before being gently pressed. 18 months in small oak barrels. Unfined, unfiltered. Pink peppercorns, barrel spices, toasted chestnut, coconut, black olives. The nose is rococo , dramatic, and I was a little bit intimidated. Was this going to be a Becker chest-drumming show of power? Quite the opposite, and I was undone. One sip filled my mouth with this exquisitely gentle, pure-throated, nightingale song of sweet, limpid, pink-red fruit. Such a story of contrast! Roses and cherries, dimples and deep, deep pools of glowing fruit. Magical, suspense-filled; a thousand stories in every sip. The liquid version of One Thousand And One Nights ? But still quintessentially Becker, and all this luminous fruit comes between the towering pillars of great, chewy tannins. It's an awesome wine, and I mean that in every sense of the word. (TC)

The 2017 Sankt Paul Spätburgunder GG is pure, fresh and intense yet always refined and elegant on the deep and finely plummy nose with its tobacco leaf aromas. Silky, pure and fresh on the palate, this is an extraordinary, sustainable yet always pure and transparent Pinot with very fine tannins and a long and intense finish. This is finer and more delicate compared to the massive Heydenreich, and it's more "French" compared to the Kammerberg KB. A fabulous Pinot from comparably younger vines. Tasted in Wiesbaden in August 2020.