Barmès Buecher 2007 Crémant d’Alsace (Alsace) – Clean. Papered-over lemon and apple skin. Not really much more than that; an unusually simple performance for this wine, which is never overly complex but usually shows more than this. Blame barometric pressure or something. (10/11)
crémant d’alsace
A Barmès day
Barmès Buecher Crémant d’Alsace Brut (Alsace) – Restrained, salty, tonic-like. Very, very clean, hinting at bitter citrus but delivering only a fraction of what it suggests it might. Nice. (11/10)
Not Fonné
Michel Fonné Crémant d’Alsace (Alsace) – Not as good as my previous bottle, with a wallpapered exterior and not much intensity or generosity of flavor in the middle. Bottle variation at work. (2/10)
Fonné girl
Michel Fonné Crémant d’Alsace (Alsace) – Surprisingly complete, with chalky yeastiness and the beginnings of identifiable autolysis, a very rindy citrus palate, and a crisp and expansive froth. Salty. The intense finish sharpens to a point. This is already better than most Alsatian crémant, though a little more aromatic generosity would not hurt. (1/10)
If the Zusslin fits
Zusslin Crémant d’Alsace Brut (Alsace) – If stones shed their skins, they could have been fermented into a wine much like this. Sharp and hollow, with traces of apple and a loose froth. Lacks presence. (12/08)
Brut force
Boxler Crémant d’Alsace Extra Brut (Alsace) – More austere than a crémant should be, reminiscent of the older style of exceedingly ungenerous crémant that does the category no favors. It tastes sort of like paper. So I guess there’s something Boxler isn’t brilliant at, which I suppose is somewhat of a relief. (5/08)
Bubbly Barmès
Barmès Buecher 2005 Crémant d’Alsace Brut (Alsace) – Piercing and vibrantly acidic, though the acid dominance renders the wine more brittle than I would like. What fruit there is seems whitewashed and then coated in a fine dust of blackboard chalk. A very particular, almost old school crémant d’Alsace, which isn’t necessarily a compliment; to the extent that crémant can be made to feel like Champagne without tasting like Champagne, I think it benefits from the aspiration. This is more like sekt. Ultimately, of course, there’s an issue of preference here, but I think Alsace is less suited for sekt than it is for a richer, more complex bubbly. (9/07)