Region: Alsace, France
Varietal: 70% Pinot Auxerrois & 30% Pinot Blanc
Tasting Notes : Pale flinty white-green color. Soft stone fruits lead to a lucid lemony ginger zing. Refreshing a crisp, while holding a fair amount of body.
Pairing: Full-bodied Pinot Blanc that has seen some oak has a rich and creamy texture and pairs best with turkey, Quiche Lorraine, gooey cheese omelets, pork tenderloin, onion tarts, escargot, and a shrimp cocktail. Lighter and crisper Pinot Blanc pair best with mildly spicy Asian cuisine, shellfish, crudité, white fish, simple pasta dishes, and chicken. This particular Pinot Blanc is more serious than the light and crisp style, but made without oak. Its texture and lemony-ginger meets stone fruit nature allows it to pair effortlessly with dishes like the one we’re sharing today, Spicy Corn and Coconut Soup by Sarah Jampel.
About:Matthieu and Marie Boesch are the 11th generation to take charge of the domaine, which has been in the hands of the family since 1640.
Nestled in the Vallée Noble in the heart of the Ballons des Vosges natural park, their vineyards are protected from dominant winds and rain-bearing weather from the west by the Petit Ballon and Grand Ballon, 1,267m and 1,427m respectively. Marked by a Mediterranean-type climate (cicadas, praying mantis and green lizards roam among almond trees, ash oaks, and orchids) the valley is ventilated by fresh air currents throughout the growing season and into the Autumn. From a geological standpoint, it sits on the Rouffach-Guebwiller fault mosaic where layers of the Lower Triassic (Buntsandstein – sandstone), Middle Triassic (Muschelkalk, shale, slate), and Upper Triassic (Keuper – mostly marl) sit alongside each other, creating an incredibly diverse patchwork of soil types. The Grand Cru Zinnkoepflé sits proudly in the centre, overlooking the state-of-the-art eco-friendly winery built in 2010 using only (local) natural materials.
They have worked tirelessly to produce grapes with better balance, giving wines that throughout the range are mostly bone dry, a style which they feel works much better with food and allows for better terroir definition. In the cellar, pressing is long and slow (8 to 12 hours), yeasts are indigenous, and malolactic fermentations are allowed to occur spontaneously rather than being blocked by the addition of sulphur – Matthieu believes there is a better exchange between fine lees and wine without the interaction of sulphur, which is only added in small doses before bottling.
They set such high standards for themselves that they consistently downgrade perfectly good riesling, pinot gris and muscat grown on Zinnkoepflé (which they could bottle as Grand Cru and sell at much higher prices), simply because they believe that gewürztraminer is the only variety that reaches GC level quality in Zinnkoepflé.