2019 Meyer-Fonné Pinot Noir Altenbourg
VARIETAL: Pinot Noir
REGION: Alsace, FR
VITICULTURE: Organic
WINEMAKER: Félix Meyer
Made from grapes grown in the Altenbourg lieu-dit right below the Furstentum, a site known for outstanding late-harvest Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer but surprisingly good for Pinot Noir too. The vines harvested by Meyer-Fonné are a very good massal selection of Pinot Fin but are only roughly 20 years old, so I’d say this is a wine worth watching in future vintages as the vines get older. This has a gorgeous red jelly, ruby colour and is very exuberant, bright and super fine in aroma - 25% whole bunch has contributed nicely. Very pretty, floral red fruit - in the mouth very silky, fine graceful and long. I don't usually go for Pinot from Alsace but this is utterly compelling.
"Our vineyards are now mostly located on the hillsides, so the historic part of the Alsatian vineyards", says Félix. Only about 25% of the current holdings of 14 hectares of vines are located in the valley floor and are exclusively planted with either Pinot Blanc or Auxerrois. All the noble grape varieties, however, are cultivated in historic vineyards in the hillsides, which give predominantly dry and nervy, terroir-driven wines full of expression and mineral tension. There are no less than five Grand Cru vineyards—Kaefferkopf, Wineck-Schlossberg, Sporen, Furstentum and Schoenenbourg—that are organically farmed and cultivated and they all give deep, racy and firmly structured wines that intermix ripe fruit flavors and seductive textures with a vital and mineral backbone.
The winemaking is very traditional here, since most of the investments have been made in the low-yielding vineyards, with top old-vines parcels in the best sites, high density plantings and the vitalization of the soils. No synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides are used at all. The fermentation of the naturally cleared musts takes place with native yeasts in either stainless steel or traditional oak, and after racking, the wines are kept on the lees until May (Alsace AOC) and respectively September (single vineyards) before bottling.