Trimbach Clos Sainte Hune Riesling MAGNUM 2015

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

The 2015 Vintage

Stephan Reinhardt

Ribeauvillé (with Hunawihr), and their rather cool terroirs on deep calcareous and sandstone marl soils, are among the winners of the warm and—during the vegetation period—dangerously dry 2015 vintage. Trimbach is just another example, and consumers will certainly fall in love with the 2015 icon Rieslings of this almost-400-year-old family enterprise after they have been released in a couple of years. Sure, there have been dryer Clos Sainte Hune vintages than the 2015, which ended up with 14% alcohol and 14 grams of unfermented sugar, but was there any better? I wouldn’t claim the 2015 is the greatest ever, but I’d give it a wild card in any CSH vertical tasting for the next 30+ years.

With the (dry) Cuvée Frédéric Emile and the (medium-dry) Grand Cru Geisberg there are two more world-class Rieslings from Ribeauvillé. And, being at probably the most famous Riesling estate in all Alsace, the 2015 Grand Cru Schlossberg (the second future release after the premiere of 2014) and the Cuvée M (from the Grand Cru Mandelberg) are of great quality! Since we are talking about Riesling, the Réserve and the Sélection de Vieilles Vignes (not produced in 2010 and 2013) are excellent dry Rieslings to be paired with many kinds of dishes.

During the summer months in 2015, nobody at Trimbach thought the wines, especially the Rieslings (of which Trimbach produces 350,000 bottles per year), would turn out that well two years later. But nature was propitious and ended the dreadful summer drought with a good rainfall in August, which, as Jean and Pierre Trimbach put it during the tasting, “saved the vintage.” I’d rather say the rainfall caused a miracle and pushed the vintage into unforeseeable heights.

Although the summer was extreme on many days, the 2015 wines kept their freshness, mineral expression and linear Trimbach style. “Thank God the crop was low since the beginning, otherwise nothing would have become ripe,” says Pierre Trimbach. But the grapes became not just ripe but also intense and concentrated, giving the wines, especially the Rieslings, exceptional qualities and extraordinary aging potential.

Ian d’Agata

Jean Trimbach was but one of many Alsace _vignerons who commented that 2015 was an outlier year, with “…essentially no water falling from the skies from the end of May to August 15; and I repeat, not one drop”. His brother Pierre added that “… the very small berries and thick skins explain a lot about the taste of wines from this vintage”. If all that sounds a little ominous, the good news for wine lovers (and collectors) is that Pierre also believes that the 2015 wines will prove similar to those of 1971, which is not just one of Alsace’s all-time greatest vintages, but, for what it’s worth, but also my favorite all time modern Alsace vintage (along with 1967), so I’d say that’s good news indeed.

This storied estate now owns 52 hectares (128 acres) of vines as they recently bought two hectares in the heart of the Brand Grand Cru, which is widely considered the best part. You might think that Trimbach is going “cru-crazy” (the estate also bottles a wine labeled Geisberg, while their cuvée M will soon be renamed with the Mandelberg Grand Cru name, which is what the “M” stands for), since Jean and Pierre Trimbach were once among the most opposed to the Grand Cru system. During my visit, the usual Trimbach stars (Clos and the Fréderic Emile) shone brightly, but I found the entry-level wines (Muscat, Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc) to be also especially noteworthy.

About Trimbach

Each region around the world has epic producers, in Alsace you think of Albert Mann, Zind Humbrecht, Ostertag and always Trimbach.

Trimbach has certainly had plenty of practice. In only nine years they’ll celebrate the families 400^th year making wine!

Over the centuries they have never stopped evolving.

The first celebrated release of Clos Ste Hune was in 1919, followed by the release of Cuvée Frédéric Emile in the 1960’s, and, now two new Grand Cru’s the Geisberg 2009, and, the very first Schlossberg in 2014, which we offer today.

The Schlossberg vineyard has been leased from the Nunn’s of the local convent who insist it be bottled separately and not blended into a blended Cuvée.

The Wines

There’s a strong theme across the wines of vibrant flavours, elegance and sophistication, zesty acid for near-dry wines, balanced by great depth of fruit. These are some of the most beautiful & pure expressions of Riesling made today.

Although I’ve used the term Grand Cru throughout the offer, Trimbach, like Soldera and Gaja, doesn’t always agree with the local classifications, thinking it too broad, allowing inferior sites onto the Grand Cru list in some instances. You won’t see the term on their Clos Ste Hune Label.

Clos Ste Hune

This is undoubtedly one of the world’s best Rieslings!

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

Trimbach produces this holy-grail wine from the tiny 3-acre Clos Ste. Hune. The Clos (walled vineyard) lies within the Rosacker grand cru. Yet, the Trimbachs label their treasure simply as Clos Ste. Hune, just as they have since 1919. They refer to neither Rosacker nor grand cru; Clos Ste. Hune transcends both. It is hors classe in the same way that Ch. d’Yquem is in Sauternes.

Clos Ste. Hune balances its enveloping richness with an intense minerality, remarkable finesse and great structure. This is thanks to Clos Ste. Hune’s 50-year-old vines, planted in cool, calcareous-clay soil with a gentle incline and a high percentage of limestone. Thus, like a Raveneau grand cru Chablis, the more it ages, the more profound Clos Ste. Hune becomes.

The Trimbachs continue to make Clos Ste. Hune as they did in the past: a cool, slow fermentation; a quick racking to remove the wine from the lees; no malolactic fermentation; and a short period of ageing in neutral wood foudre before bottling early to retain the fruit. The wine is then aged for an incredible five years in bottle before being released.

In great years, tiny amounts of Vendange Tardive are made, but they are different from other VT’s. They result not from botrytis but passerillage—dehydration caused by the sap returning to the vines root system. They boast immense concentration and complexity, but only off-dry levels of residual sugar, as Trimbach vinifies them to be as dry as possible. Like other Clos Ste. Hunes, the VT’s are capable of immortality.

This exceptional wine is a product of the terroir in the “Rosacker” vineyard, located in the village of Hunawihr. This parcel of land, which stretches over 1.67 hectares, has been in the Trimbach family for more than 200 years.

The south, south-east facing vines are on average 50 years old and lie on a predominantly limestone subsoil. These factors give this Riesling a unique flavor of remarkable fruit concentration, enhanced by a refined hint of minerality on the finish.

After a few years of ageing, the typical characteristics of the “Clos Sainte Hune” terroir vibrantly shine through the glass.

The small annual production of 8,000 bottles on average, makes this wine an extremely rare treasure, much sought after by Riesling lovers and collectors across the globe.

Trimbach’s “Clos Sainte Hune” wine has an exceptional ageing potential as it can age 7 to 10 years after bottling without even reaching its peak.

The Trimbach Family keeps the bottles 5 years in the cellar for ageing before release.

Words from the Familly

I took the timelapse sequence below a few years back. Somehow it seems to fit this wine perfectly.