Smart wine buyers need no incentive from me to purchase the offerings of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Auxerrois from Alsace. Top producers turn out wines offering an unbeatable quality/price rapport. I am a great believer in Pinot Blanc, and certainly Albert Mann's 1994 Pinot Auxerrois Vieilles Vignes is a wine that may merit an outstanding rating with a few more months of bottle age. The wine offers up a dazzling nose of orange peel, and fresh, buttery, honeyed apples. Crisp and rich, with super intensity backed up by the vintage's vibrant acidity, this wine (made from a 64-year old parcel of old vines adjoining the grand cru Hengst Vineyard) is dry, delicious, and ideal for drinking over the next several years.As in other recent vintages, Albert Mann's 1994s are exceptionally brilliant. Proprietors Maurice and Jacky Barthelme own 42 acres of vines. Like other producers who claimed 1994 was a great vintage, they refused to panic during the heavy rains of late September, waiting for the vineyard to dry out before they harvested. They were rewarded with a glorious, dry, sunny, Indian-summer-like October. The Domaine Albert Mann, along with such other leading Alsatian estates as Domaine Weinbach, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, and Domaine Schoffit, claim that the wines' richness, combined with the good acidity, makes 1994 their finest vintage since 1971, even eclipsing the profound 1976s, 1989s, and 1990s. While I remain skeptical of those accolades, the wines reviewed in this issue tasted extremely unevolved and backward, yet were loaded with potential. It was easy to taste and feel the extraordinary concentration, backed up by vibrant acidity, making this undoubtedly a potentially long-lived year for the region's finest wines.Albert Mann is unquestionably one of the most underrated estates in France.Imported by Weygandt-Metzler, Box 56, Unionville, PA 19375. The telephone number is (610) 486-0800; fax (610) 932-0279. Questions regarding availability in specific states and cities should be directed to Peter Weygandt.
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