Domaine Albert Boxler

2020 Alsace Grand Cru Brand AOC Pinot Gris

The extra time in cellar before this wine is released is a testament to why the wise and well-heeled wine-lover is rewarded for their patience. Time has worked the 2020 Brand Grand Cru Pinot Gris into a purer version of itself, jumper-cable’d its perfume into something so magnetized. An intoxicating aroma gushes from the glassware, erotically musky and honey’d, like sticky meadow flowers at full flush—peonies and marmalade—truly a French kiss for the olfactory bulb. The palate is unabashedly rich, with the cru Brand’s round acidity and the supple feel of orange syrup. And then the wine takes a winking turn toward a leesy note that imitates orange pith before bouncing back on the finish to give you something beautiful, redolent of Coco López and key lime pie. Each sip craves the next. A perfectly complete wine, the kind that makes you close your eyes and forget your surroundings. This wine is clearly incredible at five years of age. I know from an unforgettable experience at The Modern in New York that it is also incredible at nine years of age. And now I want to fill in all the gaps, visiting this wine at every age, until it finally falls off, wherever that might be. Perhaps it would outlive me. There are all kinds of ways to pair this but I would love to try it with a Cajun crab boil, a Hawaiian roasted pork dish, or keep it French with a fig and foie gras mousse on the best baguette you can find.
France
White
Biodynamic Wine
Vegan

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace Grand Cru AOC

Varietal/Blend:  Pinot Gris

ABV:  14.0%

Vineyard & Vine Age: Organic estate vineyards (certified for over twenty years). Precision-farmed entirely by hand. Vines as old as eighty years, only replanted (with selection massale) on an individual basis as needed. Boxler always harvests when the fruit reaches its own natural maturity (resisting the trend to pick earlier to guarantee fully dry ferments) and may therefore contain some degree of residual sugar in the final wine, depending on the vintage. No fertilizing, ever.

Cellar: Hand sorted fruit goes into one of three pneumatic presses for an obsessively careful pressing that can last from four to twelve hours, fractioning out various pressures to blend back in or omit from each wine according to its needs. The juice is then patiently cold-settled before being racked (gravity-fed) into old French oak foudres (never into new oak, Boxler's foudres range from five years of age to over a century old). Fermentation occurs naturally with indigenous yeasts. As a rule, the wines remain on their lees unless at some point in the span of ageing they begin to taste reductive, at which time they'll rack the wine off the lees and return it to the foudre to finish its élevage. The wine is bottled after 11 months in foudre with a small SO2 addition to ensure purity. The wines are never fined and receive a very light filtration only when necessary to guarantee quality.

(NB: The identical ageing regimen and vessel size is used for every Boxler wine to provide more objective comparisons between each vintage and terroir, vertically and horizontally. The only exception is that the Gewurztraminers, Vendanges Tardives, and SGN's age in stainless steel as opposed to oak).

CSPC:  128380

Winemakers Note:  []

What the Critics are saying:  []

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Domaine Albert Boxler
2020 Alsace Grand Cru Brand AOC Pinot Gris

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace Grand Cru AOC

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France
White
Biodynamic Wine
Vegan
The extra time in cellar before this wine is released is a testament to why the wise and well-heeled wine-lover is rewarded for their patience. Time has worked the 2020 Brand Grand Cru Pinot Gris into a purer version of itself, jumper-cable’d its perfume into something so magnetized. An intoxicating aroma gushes from the glassware, erotically musky and honey’d, like sticky meadow flowers at full flush—peonies and marmalade—truly a French kiss for the olfactory bulb. The palate is unabashedly rich, with the cru Brand’s round acidity and the supple feel of orange syrup. And then the wine takes a winking turn toward a leesy note that imitates orange pith before bouncing back on the finish to give you something beautiful, redolent of Coco López and key lime pie. Each sip craves the next. A perfectly complete wine, the kind that makes you close your eyes and forget your surroundings. This wine is clearly incredible at five years of age. I know from an unforgettable experience at The Modern in New York that it is also incredible at nine years of age. And now I want to fill in all the gaps, visiting this wine at every age, until it finally falls off, wherever that might be. Perhaps it would outlive me. There are all kinds of ways to pair this but I would love to try it with a Cajun crab boil, a Hawaiian roasted pork dish, or keep it French with a fig and foie gras mousse on the best baguette you can find.

TECHNICAL INFO

Varietal/Blend:  Pinot Gris

ABV:  14.0%

Vineyard:  Organic estate vineyards (certified for over twenty years). Precision-farmed entirely by hand. Vines as old as eighty years, only replanted (with selection massale) on an individual basis as needed. Boxler always harvests when the fruit reaches its own natural maturity (resisting the trend to pick earlier to guarantee fully dry ferments) and may therefore contain some degree of residual sugar in the final wine, depending on the vintage. No fertilizing, ever.

Cellar: Hand sorted fruit goes into one of three pneumatic presses for an obsessively careful pressing that can last from four to twelve hours, fractioning out various pressures to blend back in or omit from each wine according to its needs. The juice is then patiently cold-settled before being racked (gravity-fed) into old French oak foudres (never into new oak, Boxler's foudres range from five years of age to over a century old). Fermentation occurs naturally with indigenous yeasts. As a rule, the wines remain on their lees unless at some point in the span of ageing they begin to taste reductive, at which time they'll rack the wine off the lees and return it to the foudre to finish its élevage. The wine is bottled after 11 months in foudre with a small SO2 addition to ensure purity. The wines are never fined and receive a very light filtration only when necessary to guarantee quality.

(NB: The identical ageing regimen and vessel size is used for every Boxler wine to provide more objective comparisons between each vintage and terroir, vertically and horizontally. The only exception is that the Gewurztraminers, Vendanges Tardives, and SGN's age in stainless steel as opposed to oak).

CSPC:  128380

Winemakers Note: []

What the Critics are saying: []

Giovanni Autuori
Calgary + Alberta South

T: 403-971-1898

E: giovanni@vinoalvino.ca

Joe Gurba
Edmonton + Alberta North

T: 780-203-5284

E: joeg@vinoalvino.ca

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TECHNICAL INFO

Country:  France

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace Grand Cru AOC

Climate: 

Altitude: 

Soils: 

Varietal/Blend:  Pinot Gris

Fermentation:  Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts in old oak puncheons.

Ageing: 

Vineyard & Vine Age:  Bull Swamp and Manilla vineyards in Baw Baw Shire. The vines were planted in 1961 and and 1964 respectively.

ABV:  14.0%

Produced Cases:  50

CSPC:  128380

Calgary + Alberta South

Andrew Stewart

403-604-0408

andrew@vinoalvino.ca

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Edmonton + Alberta North

Joe Gurba

780-203-5284

joe@vinoalvino.ca

Saskatoon + Saskatchewan South

Kerrie Gavin

306-290-0277

kerrie@vinoalvino.ca