Bursin’s 2006 Pinot Noir Strangenberg smells of ripe plum and cherry wreathed in wood smoke and a faintly fusil aura; offers a rather spare but bright palate impression; and finishes with impressive spice and chalk if a very slightly detached note from its mixed ages of barrique.Agathe Bursin – for more about whom consult issue 175 – is one of Alsace’s major emerging talents, as witness her surprisingly fine showing in the difficult 2006 vintage. Bursin’s 2007 vintage Rieslings are comparatively firm, though they may well blossom short-term, and as usual she has scored impressive results with Gewurztraminer.A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29