I often say that Alsace is the most breathtaking wine region on earth. It holds deep sentimental importance for me, and I visit as often as my schedule allows. As such, I’m extremely selective about the region’s wines. We might only offer one or two Alsace whites on SommSelect per year. That’s not because the region isn’t overflowing with some of France’s most historic and impressive whites—and the country’s ONLY Grand Cru Riesling. It’s because of the prices. For instance, one of my favorite Alsace Rieslings is Trimbach’s “Clos Sainte Hune” (a sub-parcel of Grand Cru Rosacker, just south of the hillside that produces this wine) which currently retails for $275 a pop. Ouch. So, rather than cramming a bunch of extremely expensive Alsace whites into your inbox, I prefer to hold my fire and wait for the rare instances wherein top quality meets a reasonable price. This is an especially exaggerated example.

So, Riesling: Do you ever wonder why so many sommeliers call it their favorite grape? Riesling is one of the most ageworthy varieties on the planet and it’s a chameleon capable of expressing even the most subtle distinctions of various soil types. Those who question the concept of terroir need only compare a glass of slate-grown Riesling to that of a neighboring limestone parcel—they will encounter two dramatically different wines. Terroir is a real thing and few grapes illustrate the concept as definitively as Riesling. 

In a restaurant, Riesling is also one of the ultimate “skeleton keys” for unlocking exotic dishes and cuisines that might otherwise stump your sommelier. For instance, my fiancé is the far superior chef in our household and when she prepares the more unusual dishes from her native Guangdong Province, Riesling is the most reliably and diversely compatible wine. Yes, white Burgundy and Champagne pair surprisingly well with many Asian dishes—but when I need one bottle to flatter the entire meal, Riesling is my go-to. Alsace Riesling, particularly, seems to possess a gift for managing unruly salt/soy and vinegar notes—not a surprise given the region’s salt pork and choucroute-intensive local cuisine.

Most wine professionals will agree the noble Riesling grape achieves its most transcendent expression in three ancient growing regions: lower Austria, southwestern Germany, and northeastern France’s Alsace region. Germany has perfected the art of chiseled, angular Riesling while the Austrian “house style” generally balances both precision and weight. Still, if you seek the absolute maximum in texture, depth and power, Alsace is your destination. But Alsace remains a challenge for sommeliers and consumers alike: Mediocre, semi-sweet white wine from the region crowds retail shelves in the US. With little in the way of classification or labeling standards, it’s often challenging to determine what’s in a bottle of Alsace Riesling until after the cork has been pulled. So, before going any further, let me be 100% clear: This is a deliciously dry wine!

This bottle hails from one of Alsace’s gems, the ancient Grand Cru “Kaefferkopf” vineyard.  Kaefferkopf has been producing wine for seven-centuries. This vineyard clings to a steep, verdant hillside in the Vosges mountains at 800-1,000 feet elevation. Soil is a mix of granite and limestone, and the vines that produce this wine are farmed organically. The most interesting thing about this vineyard isn’t soil or farming, though—it’s temperature! Whenever I’m in Alsace, I marvel at the region’s seemingly ever-present sun and warmth, even when it’s cold and rainy in nearby Champagne and Burgundy. That’s because Alsace’s Vosges mountains create what locals refer to as a föhn, or rain shadow breeze. As severe storms make their way through the Vosges, they gradually offload precipitation and cool air on west-facing slopes. By the time the weather system arrives at Grand Cru Kaefferkopf, often all that’s left is a warm, dry, down-slope breeze, or föhn. This warmth is one of the many reasons why this wine offers such disarmingly vivid yellow apple fruit and seductive texture. It’s a special site with a truly unique microclimate.

The 2013 Riesling Grand Cru Kaefferkopf is bottled by two brothers, Sebastien and Jean-Léon Schoech. The Schoech family has been working these same hillsides since the 1600’s and I regard them as one of the premier boutique family producers in all of Alsace. The family bottles an impressive diversity of joyous table wines, rich late harvest cuvées, and even distilled spirits! Everything I’ve tasted from the Schoech’s cellar is delicious, but for me, their most consistently outstanding achievement is Grand Cru Kaefferkopf. It has a steely green-yellow hue that shines in the glass. Brilliant aromas of honeycrisp apple, yellow peach, green mango, lime blossom, white mushroom, petrol, and wet sandstone wrap around a tight core of towering Grand Cru minerality. This wine is screaming into its prime now and I expect it has at least another 10-12 years of peak drinking. Its deep minerality and bracing freshness make it an ideal candidate for long-term cellar aging, but it’s not skipping a beat today. I recommend decanting for 60 minutes and serving in Bordeaux stems at 60 degrees. This is a wine built for pork, and if you love pork as much as I do, then you probably already know of David Chang’s mythic Bo Ssam Pork Shoulder recipe. If not, get ready to have your mind blown!