Profound aromas of leather, soy, vanilla-tinged blackberry preserves, and raw meat in the 2003 Burlenberg lead to palate-staining, warmly-concentrated, sappy black fruit and meat melange. Yet, this doesn’t lack for a certain tart, juicy, sappy, fresh-fruited vigor as well as fruit pit bitterness that help offset its sheer density, fruit preserve ripeness, and brooding carnality. It clings with tenacity as well as tannin, and with abundance of black fruit, resin, and meaty concentrates. Time will tell whether this wine’s firm, vintage-typical tannins outlast everything else. I would check again in 3-5 years, but be prepared to sometime in the next decade enjoy its abundant virtues along with considerable residual tannin. Jean-Michel Deiss has been growing some of the finest wines in Alsace for more than a quarter century and with them – as well as with his passionately articulate discourse – capturing the imagination and affection of wine enthusiasts world-wide. But the bearded sage of Bergheim is never satisfied, and beginning in the late eighties, he began to completely re-think his wines and means of truly embracing his terroirs. The result was new acquisitions and plantings to achieve (beginning a decade ago) single-vineyard, field-blend bottling the likes of which had scarcely been seen in Alsace for the better part of a century, and to certain of which the governing authorities have recently been persuaded (perhaps as much by Deiss’ metaphysics of terroir as by the profundity of his vinous results) to grant the status “Grand Cru.” Deiss’ special “vins de terroir” are released only after he judges them to have had sufficient time in bottle to being to show their personalities (with the 2005s only appearing in 2007). Two thousand five, incidentally, was one of the smallest harvests in this estate’s history, and fraught with difficulty, Deiss reports. Even with “varietally-“ labeled wines, Deiss can display unorthodoxy. Time only permitted me a too-brief taste of three from among Deiss’s recent nobly sweet releases, none of which one should even think about drinking for years. A 2004 Gewurztraminer V.T. from the Altenberg and Burg displayed pungent aromatics, great sweetness, and a tactile phenolic presence. I found the new wood on a 2005 Pinot Gris S.G.N. rather intrusive. And while there was no questioning the sheer concentration, viscosity, and sweetness of Deiss’ 2005 Gewurztraminer “Quintessence” – a wine selected berry-by-shriveled berry from the Altenberg and vinified in a tiny tank – it is never easy to judge such elixirs as wine even under the best of conditions. All things considered, I have elected to defer my responsibility for assessing the nobly sweet wines at this address for a later occasion.Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000

A clear choice for those who prefer mineral expression over fruit character, this Pinot opens with notes of seasoned leather, tar and cigarette tobacco. The concentrated palate is dense; notes of smoke lead to a long, earthy finish shot through with drying tannins.——W.E.(4/1/2009)—— 90