Schoenenbourg Grand Cru 2014 - Marcel Deiss

Schoenenbourg Grand Cru 2014  - Marcel Deiss

Alsace - Grand Cru - Marcel Deiss

95/100 Parker : great vintage

Maturity : 2023 - 2040

Reviewed by Stephan Reinhardt; the 30th Jun 2017 :

"The 2014 Grand Cru Schoenenbourg is still a bit discreet and reductive on the nose, but intense in its concentrated citrus (lemon confit) and earthy flavors. Sweet and piquant on the palate, this is a generous, lush and juicy, but firmly structured and vivacious, Schoenenbourg with a nice tannin grip, lingering and refreshing salinity. It has an exciting mineral structure in the finish and remains firm and precise. Very promising."

The greatest Alsatian Vin de garde

VINEYARD FLAGSHIP

The Schoenenbourg, famous since the Middle Ages, is the jewel of the RIQUEWIHR vineyard. The greatest wines of this commune were born on this terroir and have contributed to its almost universal fame. This terroir is distinguished by its topography: (Southern exposure, location at the bottom of the valley, steep slope) and its very special geology (iridescent marls and gypsum from KEUPER, more or less mixed and covered by the spreading of Vosges sandstone).

SINCE THE MIDDLE AGES

The combination of a light, non-sticky soil and a clayey subsoil, rich in fertilising elements and with good water retention, undoubtedly explains the dominant character of the terroir over the grape variety and the particularity of the Schoenenbourg wines. These wines express undeniable ageing and traveling abilities, an extraordinary richness and body, but they are also far from the type: peppery, even smoky nose, verticality masked by the body, mineral expression of a wine often hidden in its youth and oriented towards fossilized reminders over time. Finally, the ability to integrate very high residual sugar potential, linked to the Noble Rot, which is almost always present. The Schoenenbourg wines are among the Very Great Wines of Alsatian Terroirs.

THE GREATEST WINE OF THE CELLAR BY ITS ABSOLUTE CONSISTENCY

Eaten in the dark:

 Mental Landscape: Dark, horny wine (burnt nail of the horse being shoed). Opens to an open, lighter landscape, marked by water, wet chalk, wet plaster, the mud of a northern beach under a leaded sky. The touch of nose is curious, pointed, iodized, lemon zests circulate, but cold, distant, ending on noble bitterness .

 Mouthfeel: the wine begins with seduction, but a slightly intellectual seduction, like first in class or Nobel Prize winner. You say: yes, there you go, OK. Then a violent, acidic tidal wave is triggered, salivating at the back of the mouth, gently drying out the mandible, digging out a violent, broad and definitive vinosity. One remains pantois in front of this tawny, its deadly attack, its bite.

 The port or the energy: the greatest wine of the cellar, the most intimidating too: there is a unique depth, a telluric "cold", an infinite psalmody. I'm too small...