Description
93 points International Wine Cellar
Soil-driven aromas of orange, lime, lemon verbena, violet, smoke and flowers. Concentrated and powerful, with terrific spicy lift and uncanny inner-mouth energy for pinot gris. Perhaps a bit youthfully aggressive today but this boasts outstanding energy and density. I picked up a wild garlic note that Barthelme said is characteristic of Furstentum. Offers superb palate-staining persistence. This should be great in ten years. Hail cut the yield here to 25 hectoliters per hectare. Barthelme says that this and the Cuvee Albert remind him of “the old classic pinot gris style of the mid-’90s,” and notes that this was the first vintage since those days in which this wine was done entirely in stainless steel.
90 points Wine Advocate
Ironically, after a 2006 rendition which the Barthelmes (and I – who have been critical of the project) think was the most successful of their long-running experiments with barriques, they decided to revert to stainless steel vinification for their 2007 Pinot Gris Furstentum, and say they intend to render it this way in the future. Orange zest, litchi, brown spices, and smoked meat on the nose and palate could be Gewurztraminer. Opulent, oily, and enveloping, yet refreshing, and with well-integrated sweetness, this suffers only from a touch of alcoholic heat, which might well dissipate in the 5-7 years I would be tempted to give it in the cellar and it should hold up well for twice that long.
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