Scented and flavored with fresh apple, raw almond, and orange zest along with Chablis-like, chalk-suffused herb and meat stock, the Beyer 2009 Pinot Blanc displays admirable, surprising freshness and cut, not to mention sheer persistence for a wine of this vintage and genre. (That applied to Beyer’s 2009 Sylvaner as well, but I graded it down a tick on aromatic purity.) In fact, this is as distinctively delicious a Pinot Blanc from Beyer as I can recall. I have no experience with drinking older examples of their Pinot Blanc (all other varieties, yes), but suspect that this fine value will keep nicely for at least three years. (I was too late to catch the Beyer 2008 Pinot Blanc at the winery and had not had a chance to locate a bottle stateside.) Even in 2003, Marc Beyer and his team rendered a collection true to their domaine’s principles of dryness, acid-retention, and mineral expression, while for the most part avoiding alcoholic overload or flat-footedness. So I wasn’t surprised that they considered 2009 child’s play by comparison and fielded an often excellent if variable collection. “It was a vintage where you really had to wait,” says Marc Beyer of 2008, “but the fruit kept its acidity; eventually the maturity came up to over 13 (% natural alcohol); and the wines achieved a perfect balance.” Certainly the best of them did, at least. With their tendency to express volatile esters; their often big-boned and angular architecture; and their unapologetic absence of residual sugar, Beyer wines may well strike many of today’s oenophiles and writers as an anachronism, whereas for others of us, they are like a part of the profoundly beautiful village landscapes of Alsace to which we repeatedly return with a sense of comforting familiarity and the knowledge that their slow evolution will be as reliable as their adherence to a traditional style. But that is not meant to suggest that surprises are precluded, and in fact in both 2009 and 2008 there are a number of Beyer wines the likes of which I have difficulty recalling from this address or any other.Imported by Aveniu (A.V.) Brands, Baltimore, MD; tel. (410) 884-9463
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