2008 Domaine Zind Humbrecht, Thann Clos Saint Urbain Pinot Gris Grand Cru, Rangen

(12.5% alcohol): Bright straw-yellow. Discreet aromas of fresh berries, pear, smoky gunflint and chamomile. Expressive soil-inflected, highly nuanced but austere flavors of lime, nectarine, minerals and nut oils display outstanding palate-staining concentration. Finishes very long, with a penetrating quality to its mineral and stone fruit flavors and a noteworthy light touch. A wine of nostril-piquing intensity but less ripe and complex than the 2010; by comparison, this 2008 is even more saline. The 2008 weather during the growth cycle was similar to 2010’s in that the summer was very cool but the late fall brought warm conditions. A little noble rot developed in 2008 (especially in the bottom part of the Clos nearest to the Thur river, where humidity is higher), making for a more complex wine. This wine is even higher in acidity than the 2010 and the fermentation took six months, which is atypically long for a Rangen wine, as the yeasts had a hard time due to the very high acidity in the grapes. And so the 2008 Pinot Gris Clos Saint Urbain carries higher-than-usual residual sugar of 46 grams per liter--paired with an almost unheard-of-for-the-variety 8.8 g/l of acidity and a pH of just 3.0 that largely buffers the wine's sweetness. As is usual in most vintages, there isn’t much of the 2008 Pinot Gris Clos Saint Urbain to go around, as the yield was just 21 hectoliters per hectare.