Rolly Gassmann ‘Auxerrois’, Moenchreben de Rorschwihr, Alsace, France 2005

I’m infatuated with Rolly Gassmann. The Auxerrois from Moenchreben de Rorschwihr is my favorite wine.

The Gassmann family has been making wine in Rorschwihr since 1676. The Rolly Gassmann estate has only existed since 1967, when Marie-Therese Rolly married Louis Gassmann. The estate, which began its conversion to bio-dynamics in 1997, stores an astonishing 800,000 bottles. Production is 200,000 bottles per annum of which ninety-percent is white. Wines are only released when the winery feels they have aged appropriately, sometimes as many as 20 years after bottling.

“Auxerrois is both the name used for the black-berried Malbec in Cahors, where it is the dominant vine variety, and the name of a relatively important white-berried variety in Alsace. And as if that were not confusing enough, Auxerrois Gris is a synonym for Pinot Gris in Alsace, while Chardonnay, before it became so famous, was once known as Auxerrois Blanc in the Moselle – as distinct from Auxerrois Blanc de Laquenexy, which is the variety today called Auxerrois in north east France (including Alsace) and Luxemborg. In 1999, DNA profiling at Davis showed that this Auxerrois is a progeny of Pinot and Gouais Blanc.” Oxford Companion to Wine, 55.

Alsace is the driest region in France with more sun than the national average. The wine produced here is primarily white. The main grapes are Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Auxerrois, Sylvaner, and Muscat. There is no official labeling to distinguish dry from off-dry wines and this has and will continue to cause confusion with consumers. Alsace is the only AOC region in France where Riesling is grown.

Rolly Gassmann ‘Auxerrois’, Moenchreben de Rorschwihr, Alsace, France 2005

Nose: Match-head, tropical fruits dripping sap from their stems, flowers, meadows, Spring, bees-wax, oranges flowering, bees spraying, soy, sweet brimstone, honey, surf, sea shells, ripening white peaches, white pepper, cucumber, chile peppers, skillet, this wine has its own compass, sulfur and earth, coastal New England, wet rock, raking leaves, turf, pine, maple, lemon, lime, talc.

Palate: A steely frame, lime, papaya, a frame like two saws, gras (fat), pine-needle, winter, vegetable char, coal, embers, camp-fire, primitivity, qualities of both Riesling and Gewurztraminer, bees-wax, blood-orange, pepper-mint, cut grass, peel, blade wheel splits the mango, brass, rainy day, wet rock, rind, tremendous definition, veins in stone.

How do you find a bottle? This may take some effort. How committed are you? Alsatian wine as a whole has more in common with German wine than with French wine. The best wines are typically off-dry. Off-dry wines fell out of popularity with the last generation. Thankfully the Riesling Renaissance prophesizes a new generation of wine drinker, a more educated and conscious consumer, one who is no longer led by its baby taste. Know this, thou ardent defender of “dry”, your Malbec is “sweeter” than my Auxerrois.