Trimbach label question

M

MLipton

Mark Lipton
So, on a recent vacation down in the Florida Keys, we got a bottle of a 2005 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve, which was a very credible and appealing bottle of Pinot Gris (and this from someone who doesn't find many versions of the variety appealing) but which sported a label that was downright funky by Trimbach standards, showing a painting of what I presume is downtown Ribeauville. There was also a very detailed back label, from whence I got most of the information about this wine. The label shown for this wine on Cellartracker bears no resemblance to the one I saw, so what was it that we got? Any enlightenment from the Trimbach experts out there?

59440.jpg
vs.
wine_394636_detail.jpeg
Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
Trimbach label questionSo, on a recent vacation down in the Florida Keys, we got a bottle of a 2005 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve, which was a very credible and appealing bottle of Pinot Gris (and this from someone who doesn't find many versions of the variety appealing) but which sported a label that was downright funky by Trimbach standards, showing a painting of what I presume is downtown Ribeauville. There was also a very detailed back label, from whence I got most of the information about this wine. The label shown for this wine on Cellartracker bears no resemblance to the one I saw, so what was it that we got? Any enlightenment from the Trimbach experts out there?

59440.jpg
vs.
wine_394636_detail.jpeg
Mark Lipton
Click to expand...

I'm not Thor (thank god) but I think the fancy one is the Reserve Personelle and the not fancy one is for regular folk.
 
The fancy painted label was introduced quite a few years ago (mid/late nineties, I think) specifically for the U.S. market. Whether or not it's used in other markets, I can't say, but the standard yellow label on the right is the label in France and everywhere else I've seen the wine. Incidentally, the painting of Ribeauvill and Trimbach's tower is the back label according to U.S. labeling law, though it's usually stocked as the front label in stores (by design).

The painted label is also not the Rserve Personelle, which (as David notes) has the gold and black label, it's just the Rserve. The latter designation is designed to indicate wines made from estate-grown fruit, versus wines made from ngociant (or, more often, mixed) fruit. That said, the Rserve is the basic pinot gris at Trimbach because there's no ngociant version. Whereas there are Rserve and ngociant versions of the riesling and gewurztraminer; we've only recently started seeing the former here, and the latter has -- to my knowledge -- never been available in the States.

Is that clear? If not, here's the hierarchy, excluding late-harvest stuff and specialty bottlings like the Hommages:

Riesling - yellow
Riesling "Rserve" (only recently sold in the U.S.) - yellow
Riesling "CFE" - gold/black
Riesling CSH - white

Pinot Gris "Rserve" - painted label for U.S., yellow elsewhere
Pinot Gris "Rserve Personelle" - gold/black

Gewurztraminer - yellow
Gewuratraminer "Rserve" (not available in U.S.) - yellow
Gewurztraminer "Cuve des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre" - gold/black

Of course, you might want to check with James Halliday to make sure that's all correct.
 
Additionally, another important distinction is that all wines with the gold/black label would qualify as Grand Cru and anything with other than that label would not. This applies to the VT and SGN bottlings as well, where they have made GC bottlings and non-GC bottlings. For example, the 2000 Hors Choix gewurtztraminer is not under the GC label, so it either used some negociant grapes, or some grapes from a non GC site. Likewise for all the SGNs and VTs made after 1990 and before 2000, other than the 1998 VT CFE.
 
Re: the 2000 Gewurztraminer SGN Hors Choix, Pierre told me that they were all estate grapes. (And given the state they were in, that makes a certain sense.) Of course, he was under the influence cold medicine at the time, so who knows?

Likewise for all the SGNs and VTs made after 1990 and before 2000.
Click to expand...
You're forgetting the very, very, very rare 1994 Muscat VT.
 
originally posted by Thor:

Likewise for all the SGNs and VTs made after 1990 and before 2000.
Click to expand...
You're forgetting the very, very, very rare 1994 Muscat VT.
Click to expand...

Wrong again, silly Thor. Pierre Rovani told me that there was no Muscat VT made by Trimbach in 1994 and he keeps constant tabs on everything that goes on in the Alsacian wine industry.
 
Wrong again, silly Thor. Pierre Rovani told me that there was no Muscat VT made by Trimbach in 1994 and he keeps constant tabs on everything that goes on in the Alsacian wine industry.
Click to expand...
Indeed, now I remember reading his incisive article in Mon Cochon, Mon Chouchou, which is pretty much the biblical text on Alsatian wine (or it may be a personal memoir, I haven't quite figured it out). Alas, if I'd only just taken him at his word in all matters, I wouldn't make stupid mistakes like this. How dare I have the temerity to raise my voice under that sort of authoritative thundercloud? His brilliance in piercing to the heart of the premature oxidation scandal should have warned me off...but no, no, here I had to go and start typing nonsense. It won't happen again, I assure you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top