Cave de Ribeauville Alsace Grand Cru Rosacker Riesling 2021 (12% ABV) – 94
SR | This Rosacker opens pure, clear, bright, and fresh, just as if the limestone had just been crushed and the powder had found its way into my glass. The fruit is fully ripe and concentrated and perfectly interwoven with the finely milled limestone notes of the Rosacker. Lush and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich, and intense, yet also refined and saline Rosacker, with really fine tannins and a ripe, elegant acidity. The finish is fresh and savory, dense and aromatic, but always tight, linear, and elegant. Impressive wine. 94
AJ | The palest wine in the whole tasting, looking like some trendy Provence Rolle, but with extra green. It's pure greensilver. This is majoring on all that refined Rosacker fruit: a kind of essence of northern orchard, with apple, crabapple, peach, quince, and medlar. There are some planty notes, but much less, and much less thick-leaved and overt than for Shoenenbourg. Very puriste, this, but very good. Stripped back on the palate, taut, tightly sprung, shaven-headed, but still with much to communicate. A strip-the-willow Rosacker, nervy as you like; the ultimate puriste Alsace wine, and a total contrast to the lazy cliché of Alsace as slack-bellied, sweet, and rich. Its inner force is taut and fine, and I think it will age well, but it is still just a bit austere for me. 92
AR | Probably the palest wine in the entire tasting: bright, almost water-white (with green glints).This is still quite elemental in aroma, giving little away, but when you taste it, it's surprisingly distinctive, an initial citrusy sweetness but always a sourness in combination; mouthwatering, yes, very, minerally, yes, I think so, because while it's dry to the point of austerity, it's not actually austere and has much to say for itself, thanks to an evident concentration and a delicacy that combine in an umami-rich wine that has to be drunk with food (preferably Japanese). Albeit in a minor key, this is a wow wine. 95