Grown next to her Pinot Noir, Bursin’s 2005 Sylvaner offers a creamy texture, a bittersweet, honeyed, and smoky cast, but also clear apple fruit, floral notes, and distinctive chalkiness. At ten or a dozen clusters per vine, Bursin thinks she has found the right balance for ripening this variety, since the alcohol is already pushing 14%, while the wine’s eight grams of residual sugar are barely perceptible. This offers a low-key but satisfying and versatile personality for immediate consumption. 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.

With classic smoky, apply, pearsy aromas of this variety, the Bursin 2004 Sylvaner comes to the palate rounded and rich yet refreshing, with brown spices and flowers adding an allure much less often encountered with this grape. (The 2004 “Eminence” bottling of Sylvaner was slightly severe despite its sweetness.) 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.