TN: 2001 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune (France, Alsace)

2001 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune - France, Alsace (1/22/2019)
Birthday bottle, which I drank from the Grassl Glass Mineralité glass. As it was a bit of an impulse to open this, I did pop and pour, though there was about an hour from my first couple of sips to any serious drinking. I am sure that helped the wine open up.

It’s hard to describe the wine other than to say it was monumental. The non-fruit elements were clearly the focus of the wine, but not because the fruit had faded, but rather because the stone foundation of the wine demanded center stage. The aromatics were gorgeous, with some crisp tree fruit tones, but more salty, savory, fresh pine, rain on hot stones and clean forest scents than I could absorb. Completely dry on the palate, it nevertheless had a richness in the mid-palate, before the acidity cut through like a blade. I never did find out how long the finish was, as I kept going back for another sip before it faded. I know that wine is supposed to be a partner to the food, but this bottle grabbed my attention to the point where I barely paid attention to what I was eating.

Captivating stuff that has eons to go before it fades.

Posted from CellarTracker

Envious, and wonderful tasting note. Never had this wine, though have had numerous 2001 CFE and CFE/375eme, which have been fabulous. How much “better” or different do you think the CsH is?

Better depends on what you want from the wine. Different gets to the bone dry nature of CSH (I find many recent vintages of CFE to be dry, but not austerely dry), and the texture of the wine.

CSH to me is a distilled essence of Riesling.

I’ve been lucky to have CSH and FE 375 several times from 01, though the former not for a few years. At that time I felt the FE 375 was 90% of CSH, the latter w an extra gear. The 375 version is way better than regular FE in that vintage.

It is like Louis Vuitton
I am amazed by both CFE and CSH
CSH 2002 is as great as 2001 IMO

Makes sense to me Claus, as 2002 CFE is right there with the 2001.

Had the 01 cfe375 two weeks ago and was also really smitten with it. Jealous of the CSH. Cheers!

Does this mean you had a 375ml bottle, or was this the special 375th Anniversary bottling (different from the “normal” 2001)? The reason I ask is that I once ordered (from a restaurant wine list) a bottle labelled as the 375th CFE, and they tried to instead serve me a 375ml of the normal CFE. Based on the pricing (which was a great deal for a 750ml of the 375th Anniversary…but a horrible deal for a 375ml of the “normal” CFE), I knew it was a mistake. After I sent them back, there was some confusion and they ultimately found the right bottle!

That 375th Anniversary bottling was truly exceptional! Unfortunately, I think I finished my last bottle about 4 years ago.

375eme is the designation to avoid confusion. I even have the 375eme in 375s!

Still 3 bottles of the 375eme left in my cellar. One is going down soon.

We’re only 7 years from the 400th anniversary. Obviously the releases will be a few years after that, but 2026 Trimbach is not so far off in historic time scales.

Love the 375
But 08 CFE will be even better
Mark my words

I am also very high on the new single vineyard bottlings from Trimbach. The Schlossberg is particularly delicious.

I was fortunate to have the CSH from the early 1980’s at a private tasting (believe it was the 1983) and have had the FE a couple of times (1990) and all I can say is the CSH was on a different planet.