One can only call the 2005 Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Selection de Grains Nobles “off the charts” if one doesn’t mean the charts on twelve of the last thirteen vintages of Pinot Gris from this site! Humbrecht readily admits it was not difficult to select these grapes, as the fruit was ripe so early and botrytis so complete. But he considers it a stroke of luck that this super-concentrate – even though it achieved only 7% alcohol, leaving behind an improbable 307 grams of residual sugar – fermented for nine months, which he believes will ultimately help it to achieve outstanding balance through the effects of barrel and lees. Tea, honey, apricot preserves, and fresh lemon practical assault you from the glass. In the mouth this is almost gelatinous, yet laser-like in its citric intensity and focus. And the resemblance to a Tokaji eszencia doesn’t stop with these phenomenally intense sensory characteristics: it is also true about this elixir (despite its having cleared the threshold of alcohol legally required for wine – a threshold from which Tokaji has recently and controversially been exempted) that it’s honestly hard to judge it today as wine. Count on this becoming more bearably concentrated in a mere 15-20 years, and on its outliving any who can read this note today. Olivier Humbrecht compares his 2004s with 1992. These were the two most copious vintages of recent times, delivering truly dry wines with quite high acidity. Although he characterized 2004 as more precocious than 2005, Humbrecht kept harvesting through early November, insisting that this was only possible due to his stringent, biodynamic viticultural practices and consequent generally healthy fruit. Humbrecht insists too that he did not seek botrytis, as rain was rendering noble rot nearly impossible. But it certainly seems sometimes as if botrytis sought out him! One price for his protracted harvest was elevated alcohol, which some wines struck me as hard-pressed to gracefully support; and acid levels too occasionally reached extremes. Overall, in fact, I have never tasted such a wide rage of quality nor so many unusually distinctive and at times downright inscrutable wines at this address as those of 2004. Two thousand five, relates Humbrecht, brought ample botrytis, especially with Pinot Gris, but later ripeness, again with formidable acid and extract levels thanks to the cool, well-watered August. Nearly all of the Riesling musts fermented dry. Humbrecht considers it a classic vintage for (in most instances dry-tasting) Gewurztraminer. And despite the blanket of rot that descended on the Pinot Gris vineyards, a cold, virtually cloudless five day period permitted patient and rigorous selection of fruit. A tribute to the ripeness and high tartaric acidity of these 2005s is that although well more than half of his lots of Riesling and Pinot Gris underwent malolactic transformation, an experienced taster would be hard-pressed to identify which! “Had we had the challenging October of 2004 in 2005 as well,” he says, “most ‘04s would be better than the ‘05s.” But as things turned out – October 2005 having been the second warmest after 2001 in the last decade – Humbrecht believes that in the long run these two collections will prove well matched in overall quality.Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491-4724