Domain Marcel Deiss, a 25 year retrospective, with Mathieu Deiss
E&R, Portland, OR
Tasted Saturday, May 3, 2014 by David Paris (dbp) with 2,026 views
Introduction
A lovely event with Mathieu Deiss (son of primary winemaker Jean-Michel Deiss) of Domaine Marcel Deiss of Bergheim, Alsace. The Deiss family has been in Bergheim since 1744, currently controlling 26 hectares (52 acres) of hillside vineyards in 9 communes. Alsase regulations cap fruit at 80 hectoliters/hectare, and 55 for the grand Crus. Deiss is more like 34hl/ht across all their wines!
I really loved all of the things that Mathieu had to share about the regions history and what he considers factors in terroir. The vineyard has been organic since 1997. The "wines aren't corrected at all." They never add or remove anything: sugar, acid, yeast, etc. No fining, but minor filtration and minor sulfuring. Mathieu went on a little rant here at the beginning that I completely agreed with, how some wineries "speak to you about terroir, but then look at what they correct in the cellar." Yes, why bother with your organic farming if you're making a bunch of additions and subtractions to the wine? He says this is "Something stupid... just stupid!"
Also of great note was that in most vineyards, all of the grape varietals are co-planted. They generally do not put grapes on the label, as these wines are a reflection of terroir, not a grape. The point is the location, so field blends occur and all fruit of a vineyard is picked all the same day to show the expression of location. No sorting of clusters is done. Hugely interesting to me was that back before phylloxera there were over 350 varietals in Alsace! No one had any notion of what varietals were in the wines. Wines just came from "this hill, that hill." No one knew what grapes were in the wines. "Wines taste of place, not of grapes," he said. Post phylloxera, of course, people had to choose what to plant since everything had to specifically be grafted... so of course you were going to know what grapes you plant. This is when the fascination began with varietals. A fantastic quote from Jean-Michel Deiss:
"When you listen to Mozart, you don't ask what percentage of violin there is, or what percentage of oboe. It doesn't matter. What matters is that they all play harmoniously together. If I can distinguish the varieties, then it's no longer wine. Wine is music; wine is harmony." Beautiful!
Flight 1 - "Alsace" (5 Notes)
Mathieu mentioned that there are only two wines in all of Alsace simply labeled "Alsace"... the first two below. Almost everyone these days puts varietals on the labels, or at least vineyard. Seems crazy that these first two are the only... The simply "Alsace" Rouge is a fantastic effort.
Flight 2 - "Premier Cru" (5 Notes)
These wines are not really Premier Cru, as there is no such construct in Alsace. Deiss has been arguing for a Premier Cru designation for some time, as these particular vineyards are most certainly of higher quality, albeit perhaps not on par with the Grand Crus. One year they even put "Premier Cru" on the label, but that didn't go over very well with the AOC. Someone said, "there are no Premier Cru Vineyards in Alsace," to which Deiss replied simply, "Are you sure?"
For a while there when négociants really controlled the sale of wines here they made absolutely no differentiation between these single vineyards and generic Alsace... so they'd pay the same for these vineyards as the generic stuff, only paying more if it were Grand Cru. That bit has change as of late, but the winery still feels Premier Cru needs to be a formal destination. Apparently just last month though the vintners have gotten together and agree to have a Premier Cru.
Flight 3 - Mambourg Grand Cru (2 Notes)
Flight 4 - Altenberg Grand Cru (3 Notes)
Flight 5 - Schoenenbourg Grand Cru (4 Notes)
Mathieu noted that this vineyard has a lot of gypsum in the soil, which is high in sulfur. This acts as a natural anti-microbial, which is why this vineyard stands up so well to weather. He said that Gypsum makes up 50% of plaster for this reason... this is why houses are built out of it; as a natural anti-mold!
Also, there's lots of clay in this soil, and apparently phylloxera has a hard time digging if your ground is at least 70% clay... so if a vineyard has deep roots in clay it does amazingly well against phylloxera. As such, many of the vines in this vineyard are not grafted.
Flight 6 - Sweeter Gewurztraminer (2 Notes)
Closing
A really fun tasting. I always enjoy hearing these amazing, historic producers speak about their wines and vineyards. There were particularly some new bits of information today, with a really great perspective. That said, and while I enjoyed nearly everything poured today, I'm still not wholly convinced of the value of Alsace. There were plenty of lovely wines, but from a price standpoint I think elsewhere in the world offers finer QPR (e.g. Germany).
2011 Marcel Deiss Rouge 89 Points
France, Alsace
Grown primarily in clay and limestone soils, it's a field blend of red grapes, primarily planted as Pinot Noir. Some herbal, green funky stuff on the nose, though it's gorgeous with a floral bend to the briar dominant notes. Nice light funky tartness as well. Fairly luscious, earthy aromas. Palate is soft, but quickly getting gritty. Fairly light in flavor, tasting quite "grapey." Perhaps some yeast notes, too. The finish is tart, and slightly puckering, building in tannin and acid after swallowing and the finish goes on. Puckering quite a bit after finishing... lingers quite a while.
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2011 Marcel Deiss Blanc 84 Points
France, Alsace
Smells quite creamy and almost buttery. Like caramel corn. Lots of slightly awkward lemon tasting melon notes. Creamy palate entry, but viscously chunky. Mild acid, tartness, and nice melon, with just a touch of lemon. More slightly awkward melon there. Good eruption of acidity on thee finish, and builds nicely. After a bit it feels odd and slightly funky.
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2011 Marcel Deiss Muscat Bergheim 88 Points
France, Alsace
This is a blend of four types of Muscat. Very floral and exuberant aromas. Like chewing on a lily petal covered in pollen. Very very interesting and unique, and quite perfumy. Soft palate and quite creamy. Tastes like lemon custard pie with acid on top. Very smooth. Big eruption of acid on the finish. Tart, but smooth, with heavy honeydew melon and more of the lemon custard pie with citric acid.
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2011 Marcel Deiss Riesling 85 Points
France, Alsace
Pretty soft aromas, with lightly creamy notes. Chunky texture, but coats the mouth with a creamy notion. Mild. Some funky tart stuff on the finish, with puckering lingering Pretty straight forward stuff, though.
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2010 Marcel Deiss Pinot Gris 84 Points
France, Alsace
Funky, soil aromas of dirty chalk. Chunky palate texture. Tastes generic without much depth. General melon note. Not much carter on the finish either, but some better acidity coming in later.
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