Trimbach Riesling - Clos Sainte Hune 2015

The Trimbach family is one of France’s greatest winemaking dynasties, having made wine in Alsace for over three centuries. The family produces outstanding wines from all the classic Alsace varieties, but their two greatest wines are made from just one variety, Riesling. In fact, Trimbach’s Clos Ste. Hune and Cuvée Frédéric Emile are not only Alsace’s two greatest dry Rieslings, they may well be the two finest examples made anywhere.

In 1919, after centuries of making Rieslings, the Trimbach family created one of the world’s greatest dry white wines: Clos Ste. Hune.

Clos Ste Hune, is a 4.12-acre historic vineyard in the Rosacker Grand Cru, belonging to the Trimbach family for over two centuries. The on average 50 year old vines are planted on cool Calcareous soil including the famed “Muschelkalk”, with a gentle incline and a high percentage of limestone. This allows this Riesling to develop a specific aroma with a wonderful concentration of fruits and minerality.

Bottling is done early to preserve freshness (without oak ageing), and the wine rests in bottle in the cellar for approximately five years before reaching the marketplace, ensuring the wine is both ready to drink upon release but also can be cellared for many years to come.

n elegant, opulent, very pure and cristalline Riesling. Bone dry with a mineral backbone with wonderful energetic balance. Notes of yellow plum, quince, green pear, lemon verbena, apricot, and tropical fruit wrap around the stony, minerally core. Pairs wonderfully with smoked fishes, trout, but also sea bass, Saint-Pierre (fish), dover sole, as well as poultry, goose, veal and pork dishes.

"The 2015 Riesling Clos Sainte Hune comes from the historic, south- and partly east-facing part (1.67 ha) of today's Grand Cru Rosacker. From deep Muschelkalk soils, the Sainte Hune opens with a deep, ripe, precise and highly complex nose with nutty and lemon flavors. Powerful, rich, piquant and concentrated on the palate, this is a beautifully complex, highly elegant and salty Riesling with intense citrus flavors and great balance in the endless finish. This Riesling builds effortlessly in the mouth. Its acidity is perfectly integrated: richness and power are magnificently poised by finesse and elegance and don't weigh heavily. This is a truly great and mouthwatering Riesling in the dry style (bottled with 14 grams of residual sugar and 14% alcohol) and can age over decades. It is surely among the finest wines being produced in 2015 in Alsace and one of the greatest Saint Hunes I have ever tasted." - 97 points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"Bright golden-tinged straw-yellow. Enticing nose of yellow apple, mirabelle, crystallized ginger and white flowers, complicated by lemony minerality. Dense, fresh and juicy, displaying outstanding sugar-acid balance and an opulent mouthfeel that is nicely lifted by penetrating notes of mirabelle, lime, wet stones, lemon peel and almond. While this enters sweet, it finishes very clean and dry. Boasts one of the most fragrant, prettiest and most forward noses I recall in a young CSH." - 97 points, Vinous

"A complex, youthful wine with apple, pear and herbal notes. The hint of tannin really helps support the medium-full body, the considerable concentration and the long herbal finish that's really suave and silky. Better than some Grand Cru wines of this vintage. Better from 2020 and should age through 2040." - 96 points, James Suckling

Producer: Trimbach 

Country: France

Region: Alsace

Varietal: Riesling

Appellation: Alsace

Vintage: 2015

Size: 750ml