Zind Humbrecht Riesling Brand Grand Cru 2014 (750ML)

96 JS / 94+ VM / 94 WA

A dense and linear riesling with sliced limes, lemons and flint. Bright and precise. Full-bodied, layered and beautiful. Great finish to this. Big and flavorful. Yet not showy. Drink now. James Suckling

Medium bright yellow. Soil-driven aromas of lime, pineapple, tangerine, balsamic nuances and crushed stone. Dense, rich and sappy, featuring focused flavors of lemon zest, peach and lime cordial. A step up in intensity from all the other 2014 Rieslings made by Zind-Humbrecht (save for the Rangen Clos Saint-Urbain). Finishes very long and saline, leaving a strong impression of extract and creamy sweetness. Tastes more opulent and sweeter than the Rangen, and the numbers seem to bear this out (9 g/L residual sugar and 7.5 g/L total acidity, compared to the Rangen’s 5.5 g/L residual sugar and 7 g/L total acidity; both have the same pH 3). Made from roughly 60-year-old vines. - Ian D'Agata, VInous Media

Bottled in August 2016 with the highest alcohol volume of the 2014 Rieslings (moderate 12.65% alcohol), Humbrecht's 2014 Riesling Brand opens with a deep, very pure and stony/flinty bouquet of ripe and well-concentrated Riesling flavors. Full-bodied and round with very delicate, fine-grained acidity and lingering salinity, this is a very elegant and finessed Brand. Silky textured, piquant and highly elegant, this is a gorgeous and powerful but refined Brand with great expression. This is Riesling from granite soils and it was bottled with 8.9 of residual sugar and a total acidity of 7.5 grams per liter, with a pretty amazing pH of 3.0 for granite soils (after the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation). - Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate