Domaine Albert Boxler

2023 Alsace AOC Pinot Noir

My first inhale of Boxler’s Pinot Noir made me do an actual double-take. Alone in the room I caught myself saying ‘wow…’ out loud, followed by a murmered ‘I didn’t see that coming’ and then the happy embarrassment of realizing you’re talking to yourself. This wine telegraphs these amazing notes of red plum, rooibos, marshmallow leaf, and blueberry laced with sandalwood, violet, and a cosmetic flicker of lipstick. With time it opens up into aromas of ginger powder, naval orange, orange blossom, and lemon poppyseed muffins. It just keep unfurling. Onto the palate, this wine is a study in paradoxes: confusingly soft tannins, gingery berry and citrus fruit, terrific sweetness from the generous fourteen degrees of alcohol, and yet there is this crazy bright acid that rolls out with genuine texture. The tannins coat the gums so gently, and that lemon poppyseed muffin note from earlier blooms again on the beginning of the finish before resolving instead into raspberry and yellow plum. From the nose alone I can say that this is everything I am seeking when I open a Pinot Noir — to be beguiled, confused, my nose locked in the glass. This is the kind of wine you can spend the night alone with, reading a book or watching a movie—one you already know well, because heaven knows you’ll be distracted by the wine. It will be fascinating to see where this wine goes in a few years’ time in the cellar. I propose serving it with roast chicken and morels, pork terrines, or a caramelized onion tart with Gruyère and thyme.
France
Red
Biodynamic Wine
Vegan

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace AOC

Varietal/Blend:  Pinot Noir

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:  128374

Winemakers Note:  []

What the Critics are saying:  []

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Domaine Albert Boxler
2023 Alsace AOC Pinot Noir

Region:  Niedermorschwihr, Alsace

Appellation:  Alsace AOC

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France
Red
Biodynamic Wine
Vegan
My first inhale of Boxler’s Pinot Noir made me do an actual double-take. Alone in the room I caught myself saying ‘wow…’ out loud, followed by a murmered ‘I didn’t see that coming’ and then the happy embarrassment of realizing you’re talking to yourself. This wine telegraphs these amazing notes of red plum, rooibos, marshmallow leaf, and blueberry laced with sandalwood, violet, and a cosmetic flicker of lipstick. With time it opens up into aromas of ginger powder, naval orange, orange blossom, and lemon poppyseed muffins. It just keep unfurling. Onto the palate, this wine is a study in paradoxes: confusingly soft tannins, gingery berry and citrus fruit, terrific sweetness from the generous fourteen degrees of alcohol, and yet there is this crazy bright acid that rolls out with genuine texture. The tannins coat the gums so gently, and that lemon poppyseed muffin note from earlier blooms again on the beginning of the finish before resolving instead into raspberry and yellow plum. From the nose alone I can say that this is everything I am seeking when I open a Pinot Noir — to be beguiled, confused, my nose locked in the glass. This is the kind of wine you can spend the night alone with, reading a book or watching a movie—one you already know well, because heaven knows you’ll be distracted by the wine. It will be fascinating to see where this wine goes in a few years’ time in the cellar. I propose serving it with roast chicken and morels, pork terrines, or a caramelized onion tart with Gruyère and thyme.

TECHNICAL INFO

Varietal/Blend:  Pinot Noir

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:  128374

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:  Pinot Noir

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:  128374

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