Sweetly Spiced Orchard Fruit for the Fall: 2016 Bechtold Pinot Gris Silberberg
Posted on: 02/21/19 9:13 PM
It’s Fall which means we have officially arrived in Pinot Gris season.The heavier, richer flavors of Autumn gives us the best opportunity to savor and appreciate one of the least understood and recognized noble grapes being produced today, Pinot Gris. Our favorite – both in taste and value – is Jean-Marie Bechtold’s 2016 Silberberg. Sweetly spiced apples, stone fruits, almonds and a touch of cream are etched inside a cushioned, soft, just off-dry, body… Silberberg’s plush interior and a whisper of residual sweetness will only enhance your most memorable Fall meals.
2016 Bechtold Pinot Gris Silberberg
Note from Importer Neal Rosenthal: “From a lieu-dit, gravelly limestone in texture and composition, located just below the “Engelberg” vineyard, on the steep slopes surrounding the village of Dahlenheim. It offers bountiful fruit both on the nose and palate accented softly with notes of spice.”
More About the Wine
Jean-Marie is a fourth-generation vigneron in Kirchheim in the far northern end of the region commonly referred to as the Bas-Rhin, or Lower-Rhine. It is important to understand that Kirchheim is located within the Couronne d’Or or “Golden Circle” near Strasbourg. Notably cooler than that of the Haut-Rhin, wines produced here feel leaner and less opulent than that of its southern counterparts. This is particularly important given today’s ever-warming climate, wines from Bechtold’s neck of the woods strike a scintillating balance that their counterparts to the south may struggle to achieve. This, along with Bechtold’s masterful signature of electric-like energy and you can see why his wines are becoming increasingly more and more talked about (and collected).
Complex without being over-complicated, Jean-Marie’s “entry” Silberberg comes from land located just beneath his Grand Cru Engelberg. Like his other wines, this Pinot Gris is full of an electric energy and exciting texture and does not portray any of the heavy, over-wrought fruit you may find further south. Grown in organic practices and vinified in 100% stainless steel with spontaneous fermentation, this is an honest and pure Pinot Gris from one of the great winemakers in the appellation.
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