Description
Emile Beyer, “Eguisheim” Pinot Noir
For your consideration: The city of Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, sits at roughly 47 degrees north, i.e. the “47th Parallel.” The historic Alsatian wine town of Eguisheim, home of Domaine Emile Beyer, is on the 48th. At one time, the 50th Parallel was considered the northern limit for viable viticulture in Europe, but as we all know, climate change is pushing that boundary northward. This may explain why so many German and Alsatian Pinot Noirs have been blowing us away lately, as a warming climate nudges them a little bit further up the ripeness scale, or it may just be that these wines have been hiding in plain sight all along, waiting for more wine lovers to embrace (or rediscover) what Pinot Noir is all about: FINESSE.
Then, of course, there’s the more mundane question of price: Given the increased costs inherent in growing such a finicky variety, we’re used to paying a little (or a lot) more for high-quality Pinot Noir. A lot of Pinot lovers have been conditioned to think that $32 can’t buy them something serious, which is where Beyer’s 2017 “Eguisheim” comes in. This is old-vine Pinot Noir from one of the variety’s traditional homelands, just a click north of Burgundy and blessed with similarly limestone-rich soils. It’s not a revolutionary wine—the Beyers have been doing this for 14 (!) generations—but it is revelatory. If you are a true-blue Pinot Noir lover, it’s time to make the pilgrimage to Eguisheim!
My love for the Alsace region has been well-documented here: It is a place that feels frozen in time, and there may be no better example of this than the Medieval village of Eguisheim. Chock full of castles, canals, and cobblestones, this is the kind of town where it is impossible to take a bad picture. It is also, according to the Beyers and others, one of the “birthplaces” of Alsatian wine culture. The Beyers founded their wine estate in 1792 and current proprietor Christian Beyer represents the 14th generation of the family to grow and make wine here. Eguisheim is just outside of Colmar, one of the “anchor” towns of the Alsace AOC, with soils that contain a patchwork of chalky limestone marl, clay, and sandstone.
Every time I offer a wine from Alsace, I’m compelled to mention that this may be the most under-appreciated wine region in the world. Its vineyards have been mapped and classified with the same rigor as Burgundy’s, and the region has long led the way in promoting sustainable viticulture. Beyer’s vineyards have been Certified Organic since 2014, which is more the rule than the exception in Alsace, and the wines from the estate that carry the “Eguisheim” designation on their labels represent the oldest vines on their estate: In the case of the Pinot Noir, that means prime hillside sites containing vines exceeding 40 and 50 years of age.
Superb Pinot Noir vineyards have been here for centuries, but much of what is written about Alsatian Pinot Noir has more of a “new frontier” kind of feel, with climate change figuring prominently in the narrative. In a 2017 article for Wine Spectator, author Emma Balter chronicled the modern-era growth of Pinot Noir plantings in Alsace—from 1,425 acres in 1980 to 3,980 in 2015. Producers in the region noted that while they once had to “chaptalize” (i.e. add sugar to) their reds to get them to the desired strength, proper maturity of Pinot Noir is no longer a challenge. It’s a strikingly similar narrative to Burgundy’s, in fact—and the proof is in the bottle!
And yet, for all this wine’s history and pedigree, its pricing has yet to catch up—and I am happy to take full advantage. In any given vintage, only about 3,000-5,000 bottles of Beyer’s “Eguisheim” are produced, sourced from 40-year-old vines and subjected to long, slow, cool fermentations in stainless steel. The wine is then aged in a combination of tanks and used French oak barrels, keeping the pure cherry fruit and smoky earth notes at the fore. Today’s ’17 shines a medium garnet-red in the glass and immediately announces itself as a “Germanic” style of Pinot Noir with its distinctively smoky aromas. Sweet scents of black and red cherry, cranberry, currants, and rose petals meld with more savory notes of crushed stones, leather, and underbrush. Another noteworthy feature is the wine’s structure—not willowy and ultra-light like a lot of Alsatian Pinots but blessed with some layers and a nice nip of tannin. There’s depth and “cut” to it that invites more comparisons to its Burgundy cousins than its German ones, so give it 30 minutes or so in a decanter before diving in: Serve it at a cool 60 degrees in Burgundy stems and you’ve got one of the most versatile reds for food one could possibly ask for. This will sing with a wide range of proteins, from salmon all the way up to beef, but I can’t resist an old-school Alsatian pairing—tarte flambée. Smoky bacon, creamy cheese, crisp crust…that’ll work for me! Enjoy!
