This note hasn’t gone on my site yet, but as I saw a thread on super-fine dry whites I thought I’d share this pleasure-horizon-expanding wine experience with you. Sadly it is my very last bottle so I doubt I’ll have the ludicrously good fortune to enjoy CSHVTHC89 ever again. Maybe I don’t need to, but this thrilled and titillated me to such an extent I feel the gap in the wine fridge this bottle left is a yawning chasm in my life. Can anything, I wonder, ever fill it?
Riesling Clos Ste Hune Vendanges Tardives Hors Choix 1989, Trimbach
The ravishing purity and finesse of this nose speak to and emotionally effect me in a ravishing, beauteous style I find hard to articulate. It is bewitching. Considering this is a selection of old vines that have been late harvested in a hot vintage it seems amazing that it is not power that defines its set of aromas but rather svelte, understated sophistication and carefully composed elegance. Yeah, there is candied orange fruit, lots of ripe lime characters, some petrol and all that stuff one is supposed to find in mature Riesling, but that isn’t what this nose it is about. It is a coruscating entity of breathtaking purity and unrestrained beauty. Its alive, and it knows it is good. The professional wino in me feels I should talk about the fine acid, rich minerality and layers of candied fruit which this obviously possesses, but reducing this scintillating entity to a list of component parts seems risible. As I swirl it around my palate I feel its lambent intensity and fulgurous exquisiteness shining focussed beams of enjoyment directly into my pleasure-centres. Tasting this is an incredible experience both viscerally and intellectually - it is intensely flavourous yet totally delicate and beguiling. The harmony is, if I may say a rude word, frankly mind-buggering. Bottles like this show that the limits of pleasure really are yet to be defined or reached - totally up for drinking and the best bottle of this I’ve witnessed.
I feel slightly guilty making this admission, but I finished off my generous bumper whilst soaking in a hot bath and talking to the love of my life - I don’t think I’ve ever had such a dissolute experience.
This was popped to mark a significant birthday (albeit slightly late) of my great friend Mr T; I ran the Oxford blind tasting team with him when we were relative youths. I could not have popped a finer bottle to celebrate seeing the old fellow again. Your very good health, Edward, let us not make it so long until we duel with tasting glasses again.
Lovely wine, although it’s been a few years since I had it. I thought it not completely dry, maybe a couple degrees of sugar. I’ve a couple bottles left and am assuming it will hold on for at least a few more years.
Yeah, not completely dry, but at this stage in its development its sugar does not stand out. Mr T cooked pasta with spider crab to have with it and their rich flavours complimented each other well.
No haste necessary to pop your bottles, clearly, but… well… you know?.. Its pretty god-damned good now if you can think of an excuse to indulge in extreme gustatory pleasure. I’m happy to visit if that would be sufficient excuse
****I thought it not completely dry, maybe a couple degrees of sugar. I’ve a couple bottles *****
I used to own multiple sets of CSH VT CH 89 and the normal CSH VT 89. Tried them and like you said : lovely wines ( only ). I much preferred the bone-dry CSH from vintage 83, 86 and 88. Guess it is my personal preference taste ( in that I do not prefer the semi-dry and semi-sweet stage of the evolvement of the CSH VT CH 89 and CSH VT 89 ) and guess also because I am a white Burgundy guy.
My friend Alain still own multiple sets of the above wines and I will ask him to hang onto them for a few more years.
Absolutely lovely note David. I’m under the impression that you enjoyed it. I own one lonely bottle & am searching for the right time to open it. I look forward to it even more after reading your comments.
Thanks for the note David. Your enthusiasm helps me evoke the memory of my last encounter with this beautiful and unique CSH, almost exactly a year ago looking out at the gardens of L’Auberge de L’Ill. Irony was this was my second choice for our first drink of the evening, after being informed the restaurant had sold their last bottle of the 90. Quite the consolation prize!
I also have some of the regular VT as well. Drier than the Hors Choix, but still not bone dry. Never had them side by side however. I know that the 1989 vintage caught the Trimbachs by surprise. They ripened so quickly that they only harvested VT in the Clos Ste Hune. I also know that Tom Stevenson, who wrote the single best book on Alsace, loves the Hors Choix, but prefers the bone dry versions of CSH.
Perhaps you aren’t referring to the bottle we drank together at the Tabard, but if you are, it’s not the same wine as the one David is describing (and I agree - neither is dry). We had the “regular” VT, not the Hors Choix. I was fortunate enough to have the HC once and thought it totally fabulous and managed to suck down about a third of the bottle before others noticed.
Not sweet really - but about the same balance as a great mosel auslese (not one with botrytis or particularly sweet - more like christoffel’s “no star” 01s or Haag’s “entry” auslese)- just perfectly balanced, rich yet light, sweet yet not.
I will have to confess that this is one of the best white wines I have ever tasted also. I too am like Tom Stevenson however and absolutely adore drier versions of the 89 Clos St Hune including the VT which is off dry. I like them better than the Hors Choix but who can be that picky? Nice note David.
Actually, I was referring to the wine we had together with Chet, Cole, Bachelet 90 Charmes and Truchot 90 Charmes. I actually thought it was the HC, but not the VT (which I must admit I passed over in David’s title). Whatever we had was really great.
Not sweet really - but about the same balance as a great mosel auslese (not one with botrytis or particularly sweet - more like christoffel’s “no star” 01s or Haag’s “entry” auslese)- just perfectly balanced, rich yet light, sweet yet not.
Yes. To me, this is a very unique wine, as light as air but with great intensity and balance. Have never had such an airy wine; it would be oh so easy to suck down a bottle very quickly!
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