2024 Zind Humbrecht: 'the purity simply floors you'

Alsatian classicism in a cool year

'The wines are crystalline beauties from top to bottom': there are high scores and strong words of praise for the 2024 Zind Humbrecht wines on vinous.com. Shielded from Atlantic rain fronts by the Vosges Mountains, Alsace enjoyed drier conditions in 2024 than the rest of France - but wet spells still reminded Olivier Humbrecht of the value of his steep, well-drained vineyard sites. After a run of warm vintages, it was also a relatively cool year, which has led to a set of fresh, precise, balanced wines. In Olivier's own assessment: '2024 is turning out to be a classic Alsace vintage with elegant fresh structures and a good-to-very-good ageing potential.'

There have been Humbrechts making wine in Alsace since the 17th century, but under Olivier's stewardship, Zind Humbrecht has become regarded as one of the world's great white wine domaines. Olivier started from a winning position, inheriting a portfolio that included sites in some of the region's great vineyards. He's a ferocious advocate for biodynamic viticulture. Some of his sites are so steep they need to be farmed by winch, and Olivier wryly describes his practice of biodynamics in these sites as 'heroic'.

There's an unusual diversity in soil types in Alsace, and that's reflected across Olivier's vineyards, from clay to limestone to granite, marl and volcanic ash. On cool, deep marl soils, Clos Häuserer lends itself to tense, precise wines with great ageing potential. Above it, on the limestone of Hengst, Riesling gets the east-facing slope, for morning sun, while on the south-facing slope, Gewürztraminer gets the full heat of the afternoon sun. The red, iron-rich soils of Rotenberg make an earthy, complex Pinot Gris. Steep, granitic Sommerberg makes a refined Riesling. The cool, clay soils of Goldert are one of the world's best sites for Muscat. On limestone, the high, well-ventilated Clos Windsbuhl is one of Olivier's greatest sites (he calls it 'an undeclared grand cru'). And the Clos St-Urbain is a Zind-Humbrecht monopole in the Rangen vineyard, where the volcanic soils impart a sapid, mineral quality that Olivier calls 'peaty' - high praise from a man who also loves Scotch. /NT

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