Rose water, licorice, lavender, and tarragon in the nose of Rolly-Gassmann’s 2009 Gewurztraminer Oberer Weingarten persist on a buoyant, surprisingly juicy and – due to the concentration of herbs – somehow cooling palate. The aforementioned concentration rises to liqueur-like proportions thanks to the feel of a glycerin-rich slick, and culminating in a long, Chartreuse-like finish of sweet, distilled herbs and flowers. This might be relatively restricted in its range of aromas and flavors, but its single mindedness is impressive. I suspect it will remain in good shape for a dozen or more years. Pierre Gassmann thinks many growers’ 2009s were picked too early and rushed in their elevage. Of course, picking later for the sake of complexity only worked in this vintage if you were willing to tolerate either a lot of alcohol or a lot of sugar, and notoriously the latter does not faze Gassmann. More than half of his wines of this vintage were, by his own admission, not just literally but legally and in style vendange tardive, though only the more botrytized among them were eventually labeled as such. Fruit from sandstone soils, he noted, remained largely healthy, while chalky sites in the direction of Bergheim succumbed to nearly pervasive noble rot. Without question, results with Riesling in 2009 defy the odds and demonstrate that with time, greater concentration of already high-must weight fruit was accompanied by concentration of much-need acids, not to mention the forging of strong, generally distinctive phenolic profiles. And bear in mind – as Pierre Gassmann is anxious to emphasize – that vendange tardive bottlings, regardless of vintage, represent harvests from an entire parcel, not bunch selections, and with volumes that can be quite substantial. There are, for instance, 13,000 bottles of the 2008 Gewurztraminer Oberer Weingarten Vendange Tardive, just one of the many Rolly Gassmann wines to illustrate the uncanny and unusual proclivity of that vintage to convey levity and fresh fruit vivacity to extremely ripe and botrytized exemplars of normally low-acid cepages. If you think 2009 was extreme in sweetness even by Gassmann standards, consider what awaits us from vintage 2010, which Pierre Gassmann informed me yielded almost exclusively vendange tardive! As adumbrated in my general introduction to this report, the Gassmanns release their wines over many years, so only a few of their 2008s or 2009s are yet in the U.S. market (and I could easily imagine that scarcely any of their 2010s would be released before 2015). By the same token, current releases available go back as far as vintage 2000, and in the case of nobly sweet wines, back to 1994. Interestingly, this estate still sells overwhelmingly inside France – and anyone who has seen the lines at their cellar door on popular weekends and before holidays derives a sense for how much of that business is retail. The roughly 20% that is exported nowadays goes principally – in order of magnitude – to Norway, the U.K., and Holland.Importers include Vin de Garde Wines Ltd., Portland, OR; tel. (503) 224 2470; Esquin Imports Inc., San Anselmo, CA (415) 451 2520; and a Bryce McNamee Selection, Boutique Wines, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954 6583

The unabashedly sweet -basic- Rolly Gassmann 2009 Gewurztraminer is positively kinky, to an extent that some may find off-putting. Rose petal, celery salt, and bacon fat are mingled with sweat, musk, and even a hint of things fecal on the nose can best be compared with a blend of classic Gewurztraminer with gamey Pinot Noir. Soapy in texture, it nonetheless pulls from its hat a rabbit of almost refreshing primary fruit juiciness in the finish. I would monitor this carefully from year to year if I bought some, and would try serving it with meat pates.Pierre Gassmann thinks many growers- 2009s were picked too early and rushed in their elevage. Of course, picking later for the sake of complexity only worked in this vintage if you were willing to tolerate either a lot of alcohol or a lot of sugar, and notoriously the latter does not faze Gassmann. More than half of his wines of this vintage were, by his own admission, not just literally but legally and in style vendange tardive, though only the more botrytized among them were eventually labeled as such. Fruit from sandstone soils, he noted, remained largely healthy, while chalky sites in the direction of Bergheim succumbed to nearly pervasive noble rot. Without question, results with Riesling in 2009 defy the odds and demonstrate that with time, greater concentration of already high-must weight fruit was accompanied by concentration of much-need acids, not to mention the forging of strong, generally distinctive phenolic profiles. And bear in mind - as Pierre Gassmann is anxious to emphasize - that vendange tardive bottlings, regardless of vintage, represent harvests from an entire parcel, not bunch selections, and with volumes that can be quite substantial. There are, for instance, 13,000 bottles of the 2008 Gewurztraminer Oberer Weingarten Vendange Tardive, just one of the many Rolly Gassmann wines to illustrate the uncanny and unusual proclivity of that vintage to convey levity and fresh fruit vivacity to extremely ripe and botrytized exemplars of normally low-acid cepages. If you think 2009 was extreme in sweetness even by Gassmann standards, consider what awaits us from vintage 2010, which Pierre Gassmann informed me yielded almost exclusively vendange tardive! As adumbrated in my general introduction to this report, the Gassmanns release their wines over many years, so only a few of their 2008s or 2009s are yet in the U.S. market (and I could easily imagine that scarcely any of their 2010s would be released before 2015). By the same token, current releases available go back as far as vintage 2000, and in the case of nobly sweet wines, back to 1994. Interestingly, this estate still sells overwhelmingly inside France - and anyone who has seen the lines at their cellar door on popular weekends and before holidays derives a sense for how much of that business is retail. The roughly 20% that is exported nowadays goes principally - in order of magnitude - to Norway, the U.K., and Holland.Importers include Vin de Garde Wines Ltd., Portland, OR; tel. (503) 224 2470; Esquin Imports Inc., San Anselmo, CA (415) 451 2520; and a Bryce McNamee Selection, Boutique Wines, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954 6583

Rose petal, smoked meat, celery, and sage flower in the nose of Rolly-Gassmann’s 2007 Gewurztraminer give fair warning of the somewhat bifurcated impression the follows on the palate. There isn’t a lot of grip here, but there is satisfying juiciness and subtly supportive sweetness, so that the wine should prove worth some experimenting at the table over the next several years. One doesn’t expect – even in the marathon that constitutes a tasting of Rolly-Gassmann collections – to encounter more than a few dry-tasting wines, and in 2006 and 2007 that number was vanishingly small. These wines generally manage their residual sugar without obscuring vineyard-specific characteristics or fatiguing the palate, and furthermore botrytis – where present – is typically noble and pure. In 2006, though – with rampant botrytis and block-picking the order of the day rather than selection (for which there was no time) – results sometimes defied those generalizations. Echoing an opinion that I have seen borne out in recent borderline over-ripe vintages in Burgundy as well, Pierre Gassmann insists that “contrary to what the enologists advised, you needed to work with the lees just as long in 2006 as in any other vintage,” and his bottling times were, as usual, in September. As for 2007, it is the occasion for a group of the most promising young Rieslings I have tasted here since my first visit 25 years ago. There has been a significant recent increase in acreage, incidentally, thanks to the recent absorption of property from a cousin. A labeling development worth noting: the names of the appropriate village are now being appended to each single vineyard wine; however, I have continued to reference only the name of the site, as in past reports. Finally, readers must bear in mind the slow pace of Rolly-Gassmann releases, with even their non-noble 2007s expected to appear only between now and 2012.Importers include Vin de Garde Wines Ltd., Portland, OR; tel. (503) 224 2470; Esquin Imports Inc., San Anselmo, CA (415) 451 2520; and a Bryce McNamee Selection, Boutique Wines, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954 6583

The nicely understated Rolly-Gassmann 2004 Gewurztraminer smells of sweet pea, rose petal and wood smoke, offers a lovely balance between juicy fresh fruit and meaty density on the palate, and finishes long on roses and brown spices. A tasting of young wines chez Rolly-Gassmann is akin to an athletic event given the sheer number of them and their generally high levels of residual sugar. (Even the “Edelzwicker” here is noticeably sweet.) Ordinarily, one has to restrain Louis Gassmann to confine his sidebars – illustrated with one or more older vintages – to a minimum, else the number of wines can get completely out of control. And I was trying to canvass two vintages at one sitting! A drawback with this approach is that most of the wines currently on offer are from vintages prior to 2004 (explaining also why few retail prices are yet available for the wines reviewed here) but there was simply no time to taste and report on earlier vintages in detail. During the several hours I tasted with Louis and son Pierre while gazing down at the door to their cellar, it appeared that Marie-Therese Rolly-Gassmann attended to an unending stream of customers. That crowd, I suppose – plus the prominent placements these wines have enjoyed in France’s top restaurants for two decades – tells you that a local penchant for Alsace wine with residual sweetness is widespread, and by no a means recent phenomenon. The best Rolly-Gassmann wines manage their residual sugar without obscuring vineyard-specific characteristics or fatiguing the palate.Importers: Vin de Garde Wines Ltd., Portland, OR; tel. (503) 224 2470; Esquin Imports Inc., San Anselmo, CA (415) 451 2520; and a Bryce McNamee Selection, Boutique Wines, Philadelphia, PA (914) 954 6583.