Alsace Gewurztraminer Fronholz Vendanges Tardives Ostertag (Domaine) 1998

Lot presentation

Alsace Gewurztraminer Fronholz Vendanges Tardives Ostertag (Domaine) 1998

The wine

This wine is part of the Ostertag range that celebrates time and maturity. It comes from Fronholz, a lieu-dit known as one of Epfig’s finest. This hill faces Vosges, making its wine particularly interesting; it is unusual for Alsace wines to be grown on slopes facing the south-west. This location is light and breezy. Arthur is guided by his senses in the vineyard where he is always listening, always observing to spot the smallest reaction in his plants. The idea is to produce the finest grape possible, the best base for a quality wine. As you can see by the “vendanges tardives” label, the harvests are carried out relatively late in the season, with the grapes being left to dry out on the vine or develop noble rot. They are sorted by hand, almost grape by grape. This is a cuvée that can be aged for over 50 years, a wine that is sweet without being heavy, carrying notes of yellow fruit and honey.

Located in Epfig, in the Lower-Rhine, the Domaine Ostertag ("Easter Day") has raised itself to the top of the hierarchy of Alsace properties in just two generations. Adolphe Ostertag created the Domaine in 1966. His son André took over in 1980, helped by his sister Annie. There are 15 hectares of vines, consisting of a hundred plots spread over five different terroirs. André Ostertag is in the habit of talking of the 80 gardens that he tends.
Trained in Burgundy, André has made quality his priority. Controlled yields, careful management of the vines, meticulous vinification, and ageing partially in barrels (for the Pinot Gris). In 1997, he converted the vineyard to organic farming (with AB certification) and then to biodynamic methods (without certification). Riesling, of which André Ostertag is a big fan, accounts for nearly 50% of the property's vines. The other varieties, in decreasing proportions, are Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Sylvaner, Pinot Noir and Muscat. Different combinations of terroirs, grape varieties and levels of ripeness enable the Domaine to produce about twenty cuvées each year. André Ostertag classifies them in three main families: fruit wines (expressing the variety and grape flavours); stone wines (expressing the terroir); and vins de temps (which involve both meanings of the French word "temps" i.e. "weather" and "time", resulting in late ripening or noble rot).