While I found the “regular” Beyer 2009 Gewurztraminer disappointingly lacking in mid-palate, their 2009 Gewurztraminer Comtes d’Eguisheim is at the very least more formidable. Peat, celery root, and rose petal on the nose have their counterparts on a voluminous, subtly oily palate. Pungent herbs, toasted pecan, and black pepper lend grip to a slightly warm and very faintly gum-numbing finish. I would want to revisit this within 3-4 years as I am unconvinced as to its aging potential. (The Beyer 2009 Gewurztraminer Vendange Tardive – for now at least – lacked enough offsetting acidity or strength of personality to really emerge from under the weight of its residual sugar.) Even in 2003, Marc Beyer and his team rendered a collection true to their domaine’s principles of dryness, acid-retention, and mineral expression, while for the most part avoiding alcoholic overload or flat-footedness. So I wasn’t surprised that they considered 2009 child’s play by comparison and fielded an often excellent if variable collection. “It was a vintage where you really had to wait,” says Marc Beyer of 2008, “but the fruit kept its acidity; eventually the maturity came up to over 13 (% natural alcohol); and the wines achieved a perfect balance.” Certainly the best of them did, at least. With their tendency to express volatile esters; their often big-boned and angular architecture; and their unapologetic absence of residual sugar, Beyer wines may well strike many of today’s oenophiles and writers as an anachronism, whereas for others of us, they are like a part of the profoundly beautiful village landscapes of Alsace to which we repeatedly return with a sense of comforting familiarity and the knowledge that their slow evolution will be as reliable as their adherence to a traditional style. But that is not meant to suggest that surprises are precluded, and in fact in both 2009 and 2008 there are a number of Beyer wines the likes of which I have difficulty recalling from this address or any other.Imported by Aveniu (A.V.) Brands, Baltimore, MD; tel. (410) 884-9463

I am less enamored of the 2003 Gewurztraminer Comtes d’Eguisheim as it is showing today: smoky and sweaty as well as heady in a decadently floral, gamey way; vintage-typical in its girth and graininess of texture. That said, I pick up no bitterness or heat, a circumstance admirable and unexpected in a big-bodied wine from this extreme vintage. A concentrated finish suggests mincemeat in its dried fruit, meat, and brown spice melange. And based on the evolution of Beyer Gewurztraminer from other freakishly ripe vintages (like 1983, 1976, or 1967- from the last of which I have been saving a half bottle!) there is every reason to expect this wine to power-on for decades.Marc Beyer continues to uphold traditions of dry-tasting wine (even the very occasional Vendange Tardive bottling here is generally only subtly sweet) and late-release. This is not an Alsace address that seems to have received much fanfare in the English language press in recent years, but I find the wines to have been constant in their quality over my 22 years of acquaintance. Indeed, I would not hesitate in describing the best of them as “classic,” while recognizing that others might say “retro.” Beyer is particularly happy with his 2005s, comparing them to the 1990s for their combination of richness and acidity. But a large part of the pleasure in buying wines from this address lies in accessing more mature vintages, and now is a last chance to snap up Beyer’s outstanding renditions of vintages 2002 and 2001. As some of Beyer’s rare nobly sweet wines going back a decade are still in the marketplace, and as these wines have never been reviewed by me nor in the pages of the Wine Advocate, I take the liberty of noting that the creamy, subtly smoky 1997 Pinot Gris S.G.N. (92 points) is a wonderful exercise in restraint yet complexity for its genre; the explosively rich 1998 Gewurztraminer S.G.N. (94 points) displays uncanny freshness and lift as well as merely subtle sweetness for all of its 110 grams residual sugar and honeyed, candied fruit, and herbal liqueur character; and the 1998 Gewurztraminer S.G.N. Quintessence (95 points) – a silken herbal-, floral-, citric-, caramelized liqueur-of-a-wine – displays phenomenal elegance and vivacity that utterly belie its viscosity.Imported by: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400 and HB Wine Merchants, New York, NY; tel. (917) 402 0456.