From a mixture of gravel and clay between Kientzheim and Sigolsheim and from true Pinot Blanc comes another botrytized, late-harvest style (though not in fact late-picked) oddity, Tempe’s 2005 Pinot Blanc Priegel. A concentration of melon and honey is nicely complimented by invigorating salinity and bright citricity (botrytis having concentrated the acids here beyond the norm for these varieties). The pungency of botrytis and leesy fermentative notes need to settle down a bit, but this boasts admirable polish and refinement. One hopes the unorthodoxy of wines like this is to be accompanied by some indication on the label that the contents are nobly sweet and probably too dense for “simple sipping”, but not quite sweet enough to be treated as “dessert wine.” I found no group of wines I tasted this year in Alsace more challenging to assess than those of vinous adventurer Marc Tempe, whom some critics call an iconoclast and others a reactionary. He bottled his first wines in 1995, and has been working biodynamically for a decade. These wines ferment longer (without cultured yeast additions – Tempe’s aim is to “work as naturally as possible”) and reside in fuder or barriques longer (generally 2-3 years) than any others I know of in Alsace today. Malolactic fermentation generally takes place, although Tempe doesn’t force it, and as he hastens to point out, he works at yield and ripeness levels that have in recent years proved pretty inhospitable to malic acid! Tempe likes botrytis for the complexity it adds even in dry wines. Add to all of the above considerations a penchant for minimal if any doses of sulfur and you often have wines that – while in some sense “slow moving” – are not easy targets to capture in a momentary tasting note. I have therefore only published notes or scores on wines whose personalities I felt capable of grasping on the occasion of my visit, which naturally also meant wines far enough along in fermentation than were many of his 2005s.Importer: Vintage 59 Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 966 9218.

The 1998 Pinot Blanc Priegel (made from 100% Pinot Blanc) was fashioned from botrytized grapes. It offers a rich, spicy nose, and a bright, well-focused, satin-textured, medium-bodied character. Spiced apples and a panoply of Middle Eastern spices can be found in this lovely, medium-bodied wine. Drink it over the next 4 years. Importer: Michel-Schlumberger Imports, Healdsburg, CA; tel. (707) 433-7427.