Domaine Albert Boxler

2022 Alsace AOC Gewurztraminer Réserve

This here is the kind of opulent yet disciplined Gewurztraminer that made me fall in love with wine as a young man, bewildered by the idea that this much complexity and aroma could exist in something made only from grapes. Boxler’s Réserve example (his favourite, he tells me, of his many Gewurz cuvées) is perfectly perfumed without excess. The aromatics skew delicately longan-like rather than lychee or rose, framed by ripe pink grapefruit, soursop, ylang-ylang, and frankincense, with notes of white sage and pineapple skins diving in and out at the edges. You lose yourself in it. And on the palate the wine does not disappoint with too much body, too little acid, or too much unctuousness, as lesser Gewurztraminers so often do. The wine is off-dry in the most pleasing and self-possessed way, rekindling that first astonishment before gliding into notes of Turkish-delight and rose blossom water and honey’d white tea. Then the finish… this wine resolves into a nostalgic pineapple upside-down cake note that’s to die for. I think texture is the trick here: the thing is just so curvy and tropical, entwined with soft, intricate waves of limestone-finessed acidity layered in waves of fruit and flower waters that have you hallucinating Gauguin paintings with ever sip. For pairing ideas, I am thinking fish pakora, seafood paella, or Basque cheesecake.
France
White
Biodynamic Wine
Vegan

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace AOC

Varietal/Blend:  Gewurztraminer

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 stainless steel. 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 returned to finish its élevage. The wine is bottled after 11 months 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:  128376

Winemakers Note:  []

What the Critics are saying:  []

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Domaine Albert Boxler
2022 Alsace AOC Gewurztraminer Réserve

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace AOC

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France
White
Biodynamic Wine
Vegan
This here is the kind of opulent yet disciplined Gewurztraminer that made me fall in love with wine as a young man, bewildered by the idea that this much complexity and aroma could exist in something made only from grapes. Boxler’s Réserve example (his favourite, he tells me, of his many Gewurz cuvées) is perfectly perfumed without excess. The aromatics skew delicately longan-like rather than lychee or rose, framed by ripe pink grapefruit, soursop, ylang-ylang, and frankincense, with notes of white sage and pineapple skins diving in and out at the edges. You lose yourself in it. And on the palate the wine does not disappoint with too much body, too little acid, or too much unctuousness, as lesser Gewurztraminers so often do. The wine is off-dry in the most pleasing and self-possessed way, rekindling that first astonishment before gliding into notes of Turkish-delight and rose blossom water and honey’d white tea. Then the finish… this wine resolves into a nostalgic pineapple upside-down cake note that’s to die for. I think texture is the trick here: the thing is just so curvy and tropical, entwined with soft, intricate waves of limestone-finessed acidity layered in waves of fruit and flower waters that have you hallucinating Gauguin paintings with ever sip. For pairing ideas, I am thinking fish pakora, seafood paella, or Basque cheesecake.

TECHNICAL INFO

Varietal/Blend:  Gewurztraminer

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 stainless steel. 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 returned to finish its élevage. The wine is bottled after 11 months 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:  128376

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 AOC

Climate: 

Altitude: 

Soils: 

Varietal/Blend:  Gewurztraminer

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:  128376

Calgary + Alberta South

Andrew Stewart

403-604-0408

andrew@vinoalvino.ca

Rajat Parr & Sashi Moorman in the vineyard

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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