MUEHLFORST 2017

---

Chalky marls (Muschelkalk) - Ripe, wide and horizontal

Appellation:

Alsace

Locality:

Muelhlforst, a vineyard of old wines on the hills located south of Ribeauvillé.

Type of soil:

Muehlforst is located in the fractal field of Ribeauvillé. This vineyard stands on a hill between Ribeauvillé and Hunawihr. Deep soils of marl and limestone on a Muschelkalk substrate allow the elaboration of wines with good concentration, wide acid structure on the palate combined with nice fruit.

Certified organic grapes for an enhanced terroir expression:

Started in 2005, our conversion to organic production took a concrete form three years later in 2008 with the ECOCERT certification. Since 2012, all the cellar operations are also covered by the European specification so that we can now speak about organic wines.

Wine character:

Expressive nose with fine fruit. A direct start on the palate, good concentration, wide strucure for a pleasant and racy dry wine. A typical wine of limestone substrate with its caracteristic expression on the palate with a ripe, wide and horiziontal acidity.

Tips for consuming:

Will be a perfect pairing with all the dishes calling for a dry aromatic white wine: Sea food, crustaceans, river fishes, fishes with sauce, scallops, with meat but also mild cheese and goat cheese. It can go with a whole meal.
You will enjoy it as young wine on its fruity caracter, but this terroirs allows nice ageing potention with fine mineral expression.

The 2017 vintage:

We had a relatively dry winter 2016-2017. The precipitations did not allow to regenerate the water resources of the soils. January was cold over a long period with temperatures down to -10°C. This was very positive for the structure of the soils.
Thanks to temperatures above average mid-March, the vines stated to grow quite early. Flowering went well. A nice summer reinforced the precocity of the vintage.
The key factors of the vintage are the small crops. This is related to a succession of problems that affected the production: frost, hail, drought (less than 250 mm rainfall from April to August), and finally wind. The addition of all these difficulties highly affected the yields. We had to face the smallest yields over decades.
The harvest started on September 7th in good conditions. The grapes were perfect. Thanks to ideal weather conditions it was possible to harvest each plot of the vineyard at the perfect moment without the pression of meteorological conditions.
The wines from 2017 are precise, elegant with a delicate but not invasive freshness. For sure a very nice vintage.