Carrière Riesling Macération Pur Vin

A skin-macerated Riesling from the Carrière lieu-dit at Rouffach, an upper slope above Grand Cru Vorbourg facing due east, below the yellow sandstone quarry of Rouffach. The domaine describes the soil it shares with Bergweingarten as marl-sandstone from the Vosges hinterland with Tertiary sandstone scree, more quartz than limestone, a brown calcareous soil, loose and stony but water-retentive, planted with Chasselas, Auxerrois, Muscat, Riesling and Gewurztraminer. Pierre and Annette Frick converted the estate to organic farming in 1970 and Jean-Pierre has farmed it biodynamically since 1981, with the first Demeter certification in 1986. This is a Pur Vin, the domaine's own name for the bottlings it has raised and bottled without any added sulfite since 1999; the front label prints "sans sulfite ajouté", residual sugar 0.0 g/l, sec and 12.5%, and the Sabotage sticker gives 15 mg/l of total SO2 and a bottling date of 4 August 2022. The cellar rules apply across the range: hand harvest, indigenous yeasts, no chaptalisation since 1988, no acidification, no fining, several rackings, and a stainless-steel crown cap instead of cork since 2002; the domaine's cellar page gives 8 to 11 months on fine lees in oak foudres of about 3,000 l, most of them a century old, and says it is making unfiltered bottling the rule where it once used a cellulose plate. Since 2014 the Fricks have macerated their white grapes whole-bunch before pressing, for less than a week, to carry the full population of indigenous yeast from the bloom into the fermentation; a French merchant's listing for the 2019 of this cuvée gives seven days on the skins and more than a year on lees. Frick's 2021 was wrecked by mildew, to the point that a prefectoral calamity order allowed the domaine a limited purchase of grapes, marked with a special back label; this bottle carries the standard one. Across Alsace, CIVA's report counted successive frosts and intense rain before a warm, dry August, with production more than 20% below target, and called the 2021 Rieslings impressive, with tension, purity and structure.