2001 Riesling Kastelberg Le Chateau

Matured in its dark golden-yellow color, the 2001 Riesling Grand Cru Kastelberg shows a deep, clear, lovely pure and elegant bouquet of ripe and matured fruit aromas along with crystalline stony notes and a (more than tolerable) hint of oxidation. Full-bodied, intense and salty, this is an intense and elegant, complex, finessed and firmly structured Riesling. It has a long and intense finish that delivers ripe and dried stone fruit, as well as caramel flavors, fine tannins and a stimulating salinity. There is very nice grip and purity here. This beautifully aged Kastelberg comes from 60-year-old vines rooting in a very complex, mainly granitic soil. Exciting! This wine will go for another decade, maybe even longer. (Tasted in March 2017.) 2001 was a great vintage in Alsace and for Antoine, it is one of his favorite vintages that his father Marcel produced. "The vintage was just perfect regarding the rainfalls and the sunshine, and the autumn was simply beautiful, with excellent harvest conditions in October," says Antoine. The yields were at 35 hectoliters per hectare and the grapes were "perfectly ripe." The Kastelberg was fermented with natural yeasts to 13% alcohol and racked from the gross lees after the fermentation to undergo malolactic fermentation during the aging on the fine lees. Bottling was in September 2002.