From lower portions of this high-elevation yet heat-trapping and arid site, Bursin’s 2005 Pinot Gris Zinnkoepfle smells of musk melon, lily, brown spices, wood smoke, and bacon fat (as if it were Gewurztraminer), fills the mouth with polished, rich, spiced cantaloupe, and finishes with intense, tactile spiciness, faint heat, but welcome saline and alkaline mineral suggestions. An imposingly creamy, rich (once could say “Bursin-typical”) wine – although, incidentally, none of these wines acquired their creaminess through malolactic conversion – this can be relished any time over the next 3-5 years.Agathe Bursin – whose inaugural vintage was 2000, prior to which her family sold their grapes to the local coop – is one of Alsace’s major emerging talents. Although this widely-traveled young viticultrice (her preferred title) farms fewer only ten acres and is already chronically sold out, she says she does not intend to increase production by more than another third, and then only over the long run. Bursin indicated she had more botrytis in 2005 than in 2004, even though she harvested quite late (and even though this is the opposite experience from that of Mure in neighboring Rouffach) because Westhalten’s clay-poor soils generally retain very little moisture.A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29.