89
David Schildknecht - Wine Advocate
The
2004 Zind represents the first time since this label's '01 inception
that only fruit from the Clos Windsbuhl - 30% Auxerrois and 70%
Chardonnay - was included, an option Humbrecht felt warranted
by the bumper crop to exercise and which so pleased him that in
2005 he followed the same course. (The Auxerrois and Pinot Blanc
from the Herrenweg informed a separate 2004 Pinot d-Alsace bottling
which had been sold out for so long when I visited, that Humbrecht
could not even locate a bottle.) Tangerine, lime and peach aromas,
herb and spice nuances, and frisky, juicy acids give this a Riesling-like
character, but clearly nothing is better than Chardonnay for mining
the chalky mineral depths of a site like this, and there is a
lushness of texture and a creaminess that no Riesling could supply.
This intriguing and already quite complex cuvee-without-a-track-record
- which took -til January, 2006 just to finishing fermentation
- might well improve over another several years.
