Seigneurs moment

Trimbach 2001 Gewurztraminer “Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre” (Alsace) – A very recent purchase, allegedly due to the winery’s recently-abandoned importer dumping their stocks on large-volume buyers (in this case, the dreaded Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board), and from one of apparently 19 or so cases stacked in a suburban outpost of Pennsylvania’s ridiculous liquor monopoly and priced at far less than 50% of what I’d consider current retail. Now, I’m quite a fan of these sorts of inventory clearance sales, but this particular release has me either doubting the story or concerned on a wider scale, because there are signs of heat damage here. Not major, and not yet all that apparent in the wine (which is different from invisible), but there’s seepage enough to have escaped about a quarter of the corks and cause the capsules to become adhesive little nightmares of glutinous packaging. My expanded universe of worry results from a concern that the wine was delivered in this condition, which means that the damage occurred at the importer level, which would be – let me emphasize my personal concern on this point as person with more Trimbach in his cellar than any other wine – horrifying to contemplate. The other possibility, of course, is that the wine was fine at delivery and was very quickly baked by the fine folks at the PLCB, who is not legendary for their nurturing storage conditions. (Is that vague enough to keep the lawyers at bay?)

So what’s left? The sort of high-minded, mineral, wet gewurztraminer this cuvée is known for, resting more on its structure than almost any other Alsatian gewurztraminer of note. But a bit more dilute than I’d expect at this stage (I do expect closure from these wines, and this would be the time for it, but I think there’s more than a closed period at work here), and the bacony stage that this wine usually finds in its maturity has a little more smoke than usual, with just the faintest touch of caramelization. Based on which, of course, I see the heat damage that I expect from the condition of the bottles, though I wonder if I’d note it had I not seen the physical evidence. Based on this performance, I’m probably going to plow through most of these over the fairly term, leaving the smaller quantity of at-release purchases for a later date. (10/11)

CFEeek

Trimbach 1999 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) – A little oxidized, a lot unpleasant. Maybe low-level taint, though it was below my threshold if so. The previous bottle was drinking extremely well, so I have to presume cork failure in one or more ways on this one. (10/11)

Trimbach 1999 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) – Better, but still not all that good. The brushed, anti-gloss metallicism is on display, as it was not in the previous wine, and there’s a little texture. But nowhere near what there should be, and the finish is attenuated. I think the rest of my bottles are going to be opened rather quickly. (10/11)

See? F*** Émile!

Trimbach 1999 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) – Riesling popsicle, or perhaps sno-cone (Philadelphia water ice?), with a dry syrup of Makrut lime leaves and aromatic straw. Very long, with all the trappings of a majesty it just doesn’t achieve. There’s a lack of sufficient acidity, for one thing, and the narrative complexity typical of the wine ends somewhere in the middle of the second chapter. In some ways, this wine is ready to drink and probably won’t reward more cellaring. In others, it’s perpetually unready; a failed dauphin. (8/11)

Ries jones

Trimbach 2001 Riesling “Réserve” (Alsace) – The “Reserve” riesling didn’t used to be available in the States, and then one year it was. One doesn’t need to investigate with a microscope the sales prospects of Alsatian wines to make a guess or two why that might be. Nonetheless, I’m pleased to see it, because the wine is measurably better than the négociant yellow label riesling. This isn’t so much apparent in the initial encounter, which mimics the regular 2001’s bright mineral polish and snappy, balanced structure, but in a finish of increasing textural interest that abandons liquidity in favor of a flowing river of crystalline particulate buzz. Despite my enthusiasm, this wine is probably at the end of its useful life. But it was a fine life, well-lived. (7/11)

Trimbach 2001 Riesling “Réserve” (Alsace) – The difference between this and the yellow négociant bottling (other than the fact that the 2001 normale is long-embalmed by now) is the wash of Trimbach-y minerality (Ribeauvillé writ rocky) and the nervosity that this has and the other only rarely achieves, and even then only in youth. There’s not a reason in the world to hold this other than morbid curiosity, as its full maturity (and then some) is already on display. (8/11)

Trimbach 2008 Riesling (Alsace) – Excitingly ripe, maybe with just the faintest touch more flesh and fat than the Trimbach “style” would suggest, but the firm grip of acidity rules all despite the extra spring in the fruit’s leap and cavort. One of the best yellow-label Trimbachs of the decade, I think (and no surprise; the more I taste, the more I think the vintage deserves its solid reputation). (6/11)

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – I admit I’m getting tired of drinking this wine, which I bought in a quantity that I’m finding hard to understand aside from the possibility that I bought it for someone else and never delivered it. But it’s a reliable, solid, quality performer, full of classic iron and apple steeliness, riper than the median, shot through with vivid acidity and a salty finish. (6/11)

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Second verse, same as the first. (6/11)

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Struggling a bit, which matches my belief (borne out by several cases of experience) that this wine is taking a good, hard look at its decline. Good bottles are at peak, bad ones are already beginning their descent. There’s still a fair wallop of steely minerality, but it’s softened around the edges and buffered at the core, and any lingering fruit is definitely experiencing red-shift. Drink up. (7/11)

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Really mineral-dusty, which is of course very welcome in aging riesling, with only beginning to shed its structure. Possibly the best performance for this bottle yet, though I’d still not want to hold it much longer; I don’t think improvement is in its future. (8/11)

Spicy '49er

Trimbach 2006 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Without knowing actual data, this wine has often struck me as one of the more syrupy Trimbach négociant gewurztraminers, full of density (probably both sugar and alcohol) without the necessary accompanying structure. I know acidity is a lot to expect from a gewurztraminer, but Trimbach can usually provide some. Here, they didn’t, and worse the counterpoint flavor intensities are not what I prefer either. It’s just kind of a fluffy wine, and that is a surprise, chez Trimbach. (9/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Just a touch past its peak, getting a little sticky rather than porcine (these grapes were never high enough quality to achieve the latter), but still delivering a lot of correct gewurztraminerishness in as dry a package as can be found outside frigid vintages anymore. (7/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Solid yet fraying. Peach, apricot, cashew, adhesion, but the acidity that binds it all together is separating from the whole. (7/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – A solid performance, just a bit more porcine than most recent bottles (which have leaned on their peach and nut characters), and that’s to the good. (8/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Hinting at bacon (more of a glazed bacon than something purely porcine or smoky), but still relying principally and very nearly solely on a white apricot sort of fruit (or perhaps white peach…really, it doesn’t matter) for what depth it retains. (9/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Solid in form, liquid in function, showing stone fruit with a touch of cashew oil, and a little bit of dilution on the finish. This story is coming to an end…not immediately, but not too many more years hence, either. (9/11)

Ries jones

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – After a few disappointing bottles, a return to form. That form? Dusty steel rods. (5/11)

Tra, tra again

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – This has thinned without really showing much in the way of aging-gewurztraminer development. The result is a lighter, more amenable wine, but also a less interesting one. Other bottles have shown minor development, but I think this vintage’s hold on life is weakening. (5/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Bigger and juicier than the previous bottle, though it still lacks gewurztraminerish intensity. Fruit remains in the pear/peach range rather than anything more exotic or lurid. Good, but only just. (5/11)

Tramway

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Really faded. I don’t think it’s just age, I suspect at least partial cork failure, because other recent bottles have been much more flavorful. (5/11)

Two

Trimbach 2002 Riesling (Alsace) – Past it. (5/11)

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Teetering but still clinging to its youthful vibrancy. Where there was iron, stone, and dust, a fierce wind has blown in, though, and away, leaving a photographic memory of same. It’s still everything one expects from négociant Trimbach, but it needs to be gulletized real soonish. (5/11)

Ling Ling

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Slight threads of oxidation woven into wet iron, though the iron itself is that sort of stale, dried blood character that riesling can sometimes show as it peeks into its decrepitude. An underperforming bottle, though I do think it’s time to drink this wine if you’re holding any. (4/11)

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Iron, steel, stale water, radish greens, and a short finish. Drying out. (5/11)

Sails

Trimbach 2008 Riesling “Réserve” (Alsace) – Sulfurous, though mildly so. Yet it does obscure. Underneath that sulfur there’s a heck of a wine…powerful, iron-cored, bracing…but I think this has been treated for the long haul, which it should have no problem enduring. Now, it’s just sulfurous. (3/11)

Trim the sails

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – Salted iron. Starting to wobble a bit, but it’s a nervous wobble, and the wine’s not without life. This is the second bottle in a row that’s shown a small but marked decline vs. a long (and recent) run of at-peak performance, which might be bad luck, or it might be the beginning of a trend. Time will tell. (2/11)

Don't tell me 'cuz it wurtz

Trimbach 2002 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Faded. Acid-washed jeans taken one too many washings into decrepitude. The memories of pork jerky, of cashew, and of stone fruit skins are there, but everything’s drying out with great rapidity. (2/11)

Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Weakening, but still representative of both grape and producer. Sticky cashew more than peach or apricot, dried lychee more than wet, some spice, some minerality, enough acidity. Other bottles from the same vintage, tasted over the past few months, have been healthier, so there might be cork variation exhibited in this one. (2/11)

Hune are you?

Trimbach 2001 Riesling Clos Ste-Hune (Alsace) – Open two days, before which it was described to me as tasting like a Shun knife. After all that aeration? Pine and Rainier cherry skins, white leaves, peonies. Cylindrical and focused, despite a lot of textural generosity – perhaps density is a better word, for this is an intensely gravitic wine – and not without its showy aspects, either. This is going to be a stunner...not that anyone who tasted it at release will be surprised to hear that. (1/11)

Henry

Trimbach 1994 Riesling “Cuvée Frédéric Émile” (Alsace) – Drying. Salted vegetables, nut-infused metals. Round but with tattered edges and borders, and occasionally dallying with a swampy character. Thickens and broadens with air, to the point that – twenty-four hours later, it’s actually better than it was at opening. But it’s still tottering on its last legs. It’s not bad, it’s just prematurely old. (1/11)

Lisa

Trimbach 2001 Riesling “Réserve” (Alsace) – With the Cuvée Frédéric Émile pushing $60 (in my market; it’s less abusive elsewhere, and I say “abusive” because I’m assured by Someone Who Should Know that the wine’s not exactly selling like hotcakes in the States these days), it’s nice to have an really inexpensive reminder of just how perfectly iconic a good Trimbach riesling can be. This is à point, in that the saltiness of the iron flakes has overwhelmed any lingering sort of malic snappishness, and still vibrant and fulsome in its saber-sharp fashion. A very, very emblematic wine. (2/11)

Trimbach 2002 Riesling (Alsace) – Columnar and iron-dominated. Ungenerous, but that’s no surprise from this wine at this age. As mature as it’s going to get, and quite tasty for what was a pretty inexpensive wine. (1/11)

Trim the sails

Trimbach 2004 Riesling (Alsace) – More advanced than other bottles from the same source (me), and were the others not in full song I’d say this is a little past ready. Probably just cork variation. Dryer than dry, showing unadorned raw iron and not a whole lot else. Well, acid, but that’s a given here. (11/10)

02 arena

Trimbach 2002 Riesling (Alsace) – Doing way better than the 2001 regular, which is a little surprising, but perhaps bodes well for the domaine wines from this vintage, which were not as trifurcated as they were in 2001. Metal, melting and molten, over coal, lead, and a chilly magma core. In other words, the usual mineral-fest. Quite appealing, but I wouldn’t hold it longer than the days necessary to drink what’s left. (10/10)

Trimbach 2002 Riesling (Alsace) – Not as intact as my previous bottle, and I’m quite happy to be near the end of what was once a considerable stash. Very acidic, and while there’s molten steel, there has been considerable erosion thereof, leading to a core that’s mostly just puckering. (11/10)

Clause

Trimbach 2001 Riesling “Réserve” (Alsace) – Vibrant, striking, and à point. Steel and iron driven into a spike, then speared through metal-jacketed apples. Mineralistic, austere, and wonderful. Such a difference when Trimbach controls the grapes, vs. the regular yellow label. Mature, but there’s no particular hurry, and a fantastic preview of what’s going to be (actually, already is) unbelievable quality from the top 2001 rieslings at Trimbach. (10/10)

Trimbach 2001 Riesling (Alsace) – Very tenuous, barely clinging to a flaky, eroded metallic life. Drink up by the end of 2007. (Oops!) (10/10)

Miner girls

Trimbach 2001 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Dying. I’ve heard fond words about a recently-consumed early-eighties version, but this is on its last amputated leg. (10/10)