Barmes-Buecher 2007 Gewurztraminer Pfersigberg Vendange Tardive displays a bifurcation akin to that of this year’s “Cuvee Maxime,” but not as severe, and with each side of the wine’s personality in itself more complex. On the one hand, we have mint, marjoram and a greenhouse’s worth of indistinct leafy and floral things; on the other: caramelized peach, butter cream, honey, and brown spices. Rose petal perfume and rose water seem to bridge the two of them, and a saline, maritime streak helps to offset the wine’s finishing sweetness. The purity and clear statement – if simpler – of the Steingrubler strikes me as more alluring today, but it should be interesting to follow this impressively rich wine over the next decade or more. There is as usual a lot of fascinating wine in Francois Barmes’ constantly shifting, hugely diverse as well as just plain huge 2007 collection, though the level of success was on the whole consistent. As in the past, though, I remained relatively unconvinced by Barmes’ way with Pinot Gris, despite its being a grape that elsewhere revealed special potential in 2007. I can’t say 2006 here represents an advertisement for Barmes’ conscientious and long-standing biodynamic practices, but then, in a year of rampant rot, surely the absence of anti-botrytis sprays has to have been sorely felt at many biodynamic estates. There were a couple of 2006s here too fungal to recommend, with the majority of what was a reduced line-up meriting mild recommendation provided they are drunk-up soon.Importer: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also, a Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29

Barmes’ 2006 Gewurztraminer Pfersigberg Vendange Tardive offers an exotic melange suggesting chocolate-covered, candied orange rind and rose petal; quetsch-filled chocolates; and somehow, from somewhere, a welcome sense of primary citrus juiciness. Expansive and creamy, this full-bodied Gewurztraminer escapes heat, yet its residual sugar engenders only restrained sweetness. I suspect it will be subject to rapid – though perhaps additionally fascinating – evolution over the next year or two. There is as usual a lot of fascinating wine in Francois Barmes’ constantly shifting, hugely diverse as well as just plain huge 2007 collection, though the level of success was on the whole consistent. As in the past, though, I remained relatively unconvinced by Barmes’ way with Pinot Gris, despite its being a grape that elsewhere revealed special potential in 2007. I can’t say 2006 here represents an advertisement for Barmes’ conscientious and long-standing biodynamic practices, but then, in a year of rampant rot, surely the absence of anti-botrytis sprays has to have been sorely felt at many biodynamic estates. There were a couple of 2006s here too fungal to recommend, with the majority of what was a reduced line-up meriting mild recommendation provided they are drunk-up soon.Importer: Sussex Wine Merchants, Moorestown, NJ; tel. (856) 608 9644; also, a Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29