Pierre Arnold Droit Comme Un l' Pinot Noir 2019

This Alsatian pinot noir presents us with all of the best qualities that a cool climate red wines can possibly achieve: deep and elegant black fruits, regal and present acidity, and earthy minerality. Aged in Burgundy pièces for 20 months, the wine begins with a delicate hint of gentle spice but is brought up to its tippy toes with the pull of lifted acidity.

Vintage: 2019
Grapes: Pinot Noir
Style: Red Wine
Alcohol Content: 13%
Region: Alsace, France
Sub-Region or Appellation: Dambach-la-Ville
Viticulture: Certified Organic 2009
Age of Vines: 40 years old
Soils: Granite, some mica
Yeasts: Indigenous
Vinification: fermented in stainless steel tank for 10-15 days
Aging: 20 months on lees in used red Burgundy barrels
Fining or Filtering: none

About the producer:

The family's eight hectares of vines sit on a mixture of granite and various types of mica that retain heat and let water filter through. Tasting their wine, you have the impression it was squeezed from these stones — after all, Pierre insists "c'est pas la cave qui fait du vin. C'est la vigne" (wine is not made in the cellar; it’s made in the vineyard). In his eyes, it is a conduit to the past, a liquid imprint: from their stately, grandma-chic Tricentenaire (a cuvée of Pinot Gris they dreamed up to commemorate their 300 year anniversary) to their salt of the earth Pinot Noir élevé en pièces (which we nicknamed 'Droit Comme un I' — straight as an arrow) to their Diamant Liquide - Riesling en Barrique (Pierre's experimental barrel of Riesling sur lie which tastes, in our mind's eye, of liquid diamonds). Perhaps most emblematic is their Vin Nature—all jasmine and lavender on the palate—so named when they realized there was a word for what they'd been making for centuries.

Country: France

Region: Alsace

Sub-region or Appellation: Dambach-la-Ville

Winemakers and Owners: Pierre Arnold, Suzanne Arnold

Viticulture: Certified Organic 2009

Terroir: Mainly granite, with two types of mica that retain heat and let water filter through; at the bottom of the hill the soils are sandy as well as alluvial

Domaine Size: 8 ha