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trimbach

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)

Ries jones

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