Deiss’s 2008 Burlenberg – which incorporates in the vineyard some Pinot Beurot with its Pinot Noir, and which I tasted as a close approximation from barrels to its final assemblage – delivers a fascinating melange of woodsy and meaty aromas along with fresh, tart blackberry and dark cherry. These elements migrate to a palate of faint-grained tanninity and saliva-inducing salinity, with the fascination of arboreal and carnal notes continuing in an impressively-sustained finish. Like other Burlenberg bottlings, this will strike some tasters as a bit too austere, but to my mind it exhibits a handsome, athletic sort of leanness and I suspect it harbors a dozen or more years’ usefulness and fascination. Jean-Michel Deiss’s chance-taking, late-harvesting attitude made for a 2009 collection at times excessive as measured by one or another parameter, but no one can fault its wines for the lack of personality that afflicts so many others from that vintage. Deiss was at pains to assure me that his single-vineyard 2009s would be more expressive and harmonious by autumn of 2011 although I am skeptical that the sort of awkwardness some of these wines exhibited last November will dissipate, and unfortunately, press of time and wine renders it impossible for me to taste many of the most prestigious Alsace wines twice. Deiss’s belief that diverse cepages which grow together – under the influence of the parcel’s terroir and of one another – tend to ripen together, was certainly tested in both 2009 and 2008, but even someone skeptical of that claim – and we skeptics are surely in the majority – must admit that to the extent under- and over-ripe (or botrytis-inflected) aspects coexist in one and the same wine, this need not always manifest itself as disharmony but sometimes instead can generate welcome tension, a tension especially beneficial in the context of noticeable sweetness, and something like seems to have happened with the exciting 2008s at this address. Jean-Michel Deiss remarked – apropos the preponderance of residually sweet wines at his estate (like so many in Alsace) – that with his vineyard and cellar environment, if he really wants a wine to go to dryness, he needs to work with it in barrique, otherwise he would need in most years to employ cultured yeasts, something he eschews – as he puts it – “on moral, not just aesthetic grounds, because I am not about to serve the industry that produces them.” That said, the healthy fruit and happy yeasts of 2009 as well as the high acidity of 2008 conspired to render more of the wines from these collections dry-tasting than is usual chez Deiss. Incidentally, Deiss has begun printing “premier cru” on the labels of those from among his single-vineyard blends that are not from officially grand cru-rated sites. Perhaps he feels emboldened to challenge the authorities not only because a certain amount of contrariness is in his nature, but because he has been deputized to take the lead in organizing growers around deciding what will define and constitute in Alsace the “A.O.P., “I.G.P.,” and other newly EU-mandated wine categories. Mathieu Deiss, incidentally, is taking on an increasing role at his family’s estate, and was almost as eager to discuss the wines and vines on the occasion of my November visit as his notoriously eager and eloquent father. (For further information on Deiss’s philosophy, his sites and their cepages, consult my reports in issues 175 and 188.)Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000

The Deiss 2007 Burlenberg - bottled last autumn - mingles dark cherry and bacon, cherry pit and licorice on a piquant but lovely nose. A palpable sense of crushed stone enhances the relative austerity of this firm but fine-grained Pinot, engendering a satisfying finishing interplay with juicy, tartly tangy fruit. But it is the rich underlying sense of roasted red meats and the saliva-inducing finishing salinity that save this from severity. I anticipate ten or a dozen years of fascination. Deiss notes that " like many red wine growers" he gauges the ripeness of his fruit by the lignification and aromatic evolution of their stems. "Why then, since that is the case," he asks rhetorically, -would I not include the stems (or at least, the majority of them, as in this instance) in the fermentation vat?-Jean-Michel Deiss's chance-taking, late-harvesting attitude made for a 2009 collection at times excessive as measured by one or another parameter, but no one can fault its wines for the lack of personality that afflicts so many others from that vintage. Deiss was at pains to assure me that his single-vineyard 2009s would be more expressive and harmonious by autumn of 2011 although I am skeptical that the sort of awkwardness some of these wines exhibited last November will dissipate, and unfortunately, press of time and wine renders it impossible for me to taste many of the most prestigious Alsace wines twice. Deiss's belief that diverse cepages which grow together -"under the influence of the parcel's terroir and of one another" tend to ripen together, was certainly tested in both 2009 and 2008, but even someone skeptical of that claim "and we skeptics are surely in the majority - must admit that to the extent under- and over-ripe (or botrytis-inflected) aspects coexist in one and the same wine, this need not always manifest itself as disharmony but sometimes instead can generate welcome tension, a tension especially beneficial in the context of noticeable sweetness, and something like seems to have happened with the exciting 2008s at this address. Jean-Michel Deiss remarked -"apropos the preponderance of residually sweet wines at his estate (like so many in Alsace) " that with his vineyard and cellar environment, if he really wants a wine to go to dryness, he needs to work with it in barrique, otherwise he would need in most years to employ cultured yeasts, something he eschews " as he puts it - "on moral, not just aesthetic grounds, because I am not about to serve the industry that produces them."- That said, the healthy fruit and happy yeasts of 2009 as well as the high acidity of 2008 conspired to render more of the wines from these collections dry-tasting than is usual chez Deiss. Incidentally, Deiss has begun printing -premier cru- on the labels of those from among his single-vineyard blends that are not from officially grand cru-rated sites. Perhaps he feels emboldened to challenge the authorities not only because a certain amount of contrariness is in his nature, but because he has been deputized to take the lead in organizing growers around deciding what will define and constitute in Alsace the "A.O.P., I.G.P.," and other newly EU-mandated wine categories. Mathieu Deiss, incidentally, is taking on an increasing role at his family's estate, and was almost as eager to discuss the wines and vines on the occasion of my November visit as his notoriously eager and eloquent father. (For further information on Deiss's philosophy, his sites and their cepages, consult my reports in issues 175 and 188.)Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000

Deiss’s 2006 Burlenberg – Pinot Noir with a bit of Pinot Beurot that spent nearly two years in barrel – smells of fresh mulberry wreathed in smoke; comes to the palate densely concentrated, broad and satiny in texture, with evident but fine-grained tannin; and finishes with bitter-sweet back fruit, brown spices, hints of black pepper, salt, and peat. This has me imagining a blend of Cabernet Franc and Syrah though it is very impressive in its less than winsome way. And, after all, there is every reason to believe from the best of Alsace Pinot Noirs that they do not behave at all like Burgundy. This definitely requires that you have faith in it and give it a few years in the cellar. I suspect it will continue to be worth drinking for at least a decade, and at the price of a village-level Burgundy, why not experiment? And I can assure you, few than half a dozen prestigious Burgundy estates crop their Pinot Noir at levels as low as Deiss’s. I have not yet tasted the 2007. Jean-Michel Deiss has been officially tasked with assisting his fellow Alsace growers in the drafting of new regional regulations and labeling conventions, in keeping with both France’s proposed move to a higher-order French appellation “d’Origine Protegee” and with the potential regional autonomy provided for (if inchoately) by recent EU legislation. As readers can imagine, Deiss’s vision involves a drastically diminished scope and roll for varietal bottling, analogous to his conception of Alsace crus as being best expressed by a blending of multiple cepages. (For more on the evolution of Deiss’s approach, consult my report in issue 175). Two things are indubitable: Alsace could use fresh approaches to labeling and marketing; and any Deiss proposal will have been thought-through all the way down to its historical and metaphysical levels. Deiss’s own line and labeling have been further simplified: beginning with 2006 his lower tier of wines is being bottled without village designations, leaving him more flexibility in blending. Although Deiss did not bottle a full compliment of his crus from the rot-challenged 2006 vintage, he said he was loath to pull back by settling his musts more aggressively of bottling earlier, “because the lees are the megaphone for the terroir.” Fair enough in principle, but the results were to say the least decidedly mixed, whereas Deiss’s 2007s represent a resounding success. (Deiss did not show me his lower-tier 2006s and I did not have chance to ferret any of them out from the marketplace.)Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000