Cellar Raids: Day Two

An incredibly rare bottling from this prominent estate, the Auslese from Achleiten displays plenty of honey and spice with orange peel, fleshy peach and dried apricot notes. So luscious on the palate and incredibly concentrated.

The 40 – 45-year-old cru vineyard Colonnello is one of Conterno’s best sites, with its complex mix of sand, magnesium and manganese soils. The 2019 is a classic vintage and one for Nebbiolo lovers and is very similar in profile to 2016. The 28 months the wine spends in Slavonian oak has helped round out the present tannins. Wild flowers and red berries combine with pomegranate and crushed raspberries. There is a concentration that is perfectly balanced with the racy acidity, a true delight to drink.

Juicy and fine boned, with notes of orange and a hint of ripe beef tomato, the 2018 Barbera is a lovely wine. It's drinking well out the gate, but will age nicely, too.

The outrunning hill of Heiligenstein. So intense - almost Grand Cru Chablis character. These’s so much going on here - texture and power, and creaminess and then plenty of spice. This treads that line between opulence and focus so so well. This is a big, intense wine, with so much intensity. Everything here is dialled up to 10.

The estate’s ‘Premier Cru’, from the vineyards that surround the estate, with grapes that don’t quite make the Hundsrück or Centgrafenberg. It shows a little of both of these vineyards, with some brooding, mineral intensity, and then a charming, floral top note. Such a delight in 2020, it’s not to be missed.

Grown on clay limestone on some of the coldest soils they have for Riesling, this vineyard is surrounded by hills limiting the sunlight it receives. There’s some warmth here still, with a silky texture and some rich breadth. Savoury on the palate with ripe apple fruit and some citrus too, with very subtle petrol hints at this early stage.

René Rostaing is one of the most famous and respected of Côte-Rôtie ‘s vignerons. He is all but retired these days, leaving the domaine in the capable hands of his son, Pierre. This 1999 was made during René’s pomp, and shows the ambition and skill of a winemaker at the top of his game.

La Belle Hélène comes from the lieu-dit Rozier that lies in the northern half of the appellation, on the Côte Brune. Here the mica-schist soils and granite soils produce structured and concentrated wines, with lots of black fruit flavours, and plenty of power to see it through a few decades in the cellar.

Probably the finest Beaune vineyard, in the 19th century it was seen as a Tête de Cuvée, the top level of the côte’s wines. ⅔ of the vines here are over 55-60 years old. Blood orange and dark fruit, there’s so much to this. Lovely fruit, and the tannin builds on the crunchy finish, which is fresh withamazing elegance. Expressive and long.

The nose is reticent at first, but with time and aeration, aromas of pure blackcurrant, violets, cocoa bean and smoke emerge. On the palate this is a wine of grand stature. There is a ripe sweetness and multilayered depth to the fruit which offsets the fine and insistent grip of the tannin. This wine is classically Haut-Brion in its broad and powerful nature, alongside a lightness of touch, elegance and precision. There is a hidden depth to this wine, with just a touch of nuance and detail evident at this young stage. The incredibly long finish is an early testament to the potential that this will evolve into great wine with time.

A tiny production white, made from 30+ year old Chardonnay from the Pira Vineyard, alongside a little white Nebbiolo. This is exotic and generous, with lots of texture and almond kernel on the finish.

From a single vineyard in Serralunga d’Alba, this shows talc-like tannins, amazing purity, and lots of lifted citrus fruit, alongside dark berry fruit, and an incredible amount of energy. Beautifully balanced.

Achleiten is one of Prager’s most recognised vineyard sites, with this cuvée coming from a parcel that is largely gneiss, with the vines planted in the 50s on the lower terraces at around 220 metres. This wine is often the most open and floral of all of the Prager wines with classic white pepper notes supported by crushed stone and lime.

With over 70 terraces of vines in the highly regarded Achleiten vineyard in Weissenkirchen, this vineyard is extremely diverse with plantings over 60 years old. This wine always displays an attractive white blossom aroma with hints of citrus and pear. The palate has a weight and silkiness as well as having a steely character and crisp acidity that provides a linear profile.

This magnificent slope rises up behind the village of Niedermorschwihr. It’s extremely steep, and produces wines of superb power and scintillating tension from its sedimentary volcanic soils. Zind Humbrecht only released this wine for the first time in 2019. The parcel was bought in 2010 and replanted after a few fallow years, in 2013. High density planting (9000 vines/hectare) and the steepness of the slope here have pushed the young vines to produce something really quite extraordinary. Indeed, Olivier admits, he hadn’t been planning on releasing a wine from this site so soon, but was so astonished with the quality and character of the wines from 2019 onwards that he felt compelled to do so. 2.8g/l residual sugar (dry)

Rangen de Thann is the most southerly of the Alsace Grands Crus, and the quality of its wines has been documented as far back as the 12th century. Olivier Humbrecht's immaculate vineyard work in its volcanic soils combined with low yields make this 2021 a wine of sensational freshness, inspite of the fact it's one of the parcels to be picked latest. It has a breadth of lime and papaya fruit on the nose witha silky texture on the palate. There is so much tension and power in this grand cru; it will age brilliantly. This magnificent slope rises up behind the village of Niedermorschwihr. It’s extremely steep, and produces wines of superb power and scintillating tension from its sedimentary volcanic soils. Zind Humbrecht only released this wine for the first time in 2019. The parcel was bought in 2010 and replanted after a few fallow years, in 2013. High density planting (9000 vines/hectare) and the steepness of the slope here have pushed the young vines to produce something really quite extraordinary. Indeed, Olivier admits, he hadn’t been planning on releasing a wine from this site so soon, but was so astonished with the quality and character of the wines from 2019 onwards that he felt compelled to do so. 3.5g/l residual sugar (dry)

The richest Pinot Gris they made this year at 8g/l. Slightly reductive on the nose with a mineral, flinty feel from its volcanic soils. It’s very tightly wound now and needs some years in the bottle to open up. The mineral character follows through on the palate but there is a little softness to the texture and citrus, pear fruit already.

This is a two hectare plot that borders Château Grillet. It’s so powerful and elegant, with clean mineral and savoury notes added to the spice and stone fruit. The definition across the finish is spectacular, and there’s energy to keep it driving on.