Description
A beautifully balanced sparkling wine from Alsace, made with a blend of mostly Pinot Blanc and Riesling grapes which are harvested by hand and carefully selected. The wine ages for 12 months on lees in large oak foudres to give it a rich, creamy texture and complex biscuity aromas. It was bottled in September 2020 and spends a minimum of 2 years ‘sur lattes’ to further develop the flavours. No sugar is added during this process, and the wine is fermented completely dry, hence the ‘Zero’ in the name. The nose is bright and expressive, with notes of buckwheat pancakes, pear compôte and raspberry. On the palate it is tense and linear, with a bright acidity and notes of green apple, pear, and yellow grapefruit. Everything plays together perfectly, resulting in a finessed and elegant bottle of bubbles.
In the cellar, pressing is long and slow (8 to 12 hours), yeasts are indigenous, and malolactic fermentations are allowed to occur spontaneously rather than being blocked by the addition of sulphur – Matthieu believes there is a better exchange between fine lees and wine without the interaction of sulphur, which is only added in small doses before bottling.
They set such high standards for themselves that they consistently downgrade perfectly good riesling, pinot gris and muscat grown on Zinnkoepflé (which they could bottle as Grand Cru and sell at much higher prices), simply because they believe that gewürztraminer is the only variety that reaches GC level quality in Zinnkoepflé.
Nestled in the Vallée Noble in the heart of the Ballons des Vosges natural park, their vineyards are protected from dominant winds and rain-bearing weather from the west by the Petit Ballon and Grand Ballon, 1,267m and 1,427m respectively. Marked by a Mediterranean-type climate (cicadas, praying mantis and green lizards roam among almond trees, ash oaks, and orchids) the valley is ventilated by fresh air currents throughout the growing season and into the Autumn. From a geological standpoint, it sits on the Rouffach-Guebwiller fault mosaic where layers of the Lower Triassic (Buntsandstein – sandstone), Middle Triassic (Muschelkalk, shale, slate), and Upper Triassic (Keuper – mostly marl) sit alongside each other, creating an incredibly diverse patchwork of soil types. The Grand Cru Zinnkoepflé sits proudly in the centre, overlooking the state-of-the-art eco-friendly winery built in 2010 using only (local) natural materials.
11% / 75cl