When Capuchin monks established this domaine in the early 1600s, the land had already been in vine for over 700 years. In the late 19th century it was acquired by the Faller family, which still farms it, organically. This particular wine is grown at the highest portion of the Schlossberg vineyard’s steeply terraced granite, and fruit is pressed and vinified in large, old casks with ambient yeasts.
The wine hits all the right notes. In the aromatics I find wax and wet slate, grass, fresh fennel, lime peel, and pineapple, and on the palate these tropical fruits bloom open. But it is also a wine that’s anchored in the earth, and the lingering impression is not of fruit but of of wet rocks slicked with savory herbs and salt.
Complicated and ambiguous and interesting. Pair it with salty, aged cheeses, especially Alp-style, and light fish and poultry spiked with citrus.
13.5% abv | $40 (sample) Imported by Vineyard Brands
