Zind Humbrecht 2015 Riesling Grand Cru Brand

Luminous straw-yellow. The broad nose hints at herbs, spices and ripe orchard fruit and is really very typical of a wine born from granite soils. Then large and broad on entry too; spice and herb notes complicate peach and pear fruit flavors. Finishes long and pure, like a morning stroll in a forest full of small yellow flowers and spring water, but also nicely saline and tactile. Though it’s easy to recognize this wine as coming from the Brand when tasting blind, I also think the 2015 is a little more youthfully reticent than usual. Humbrecht told me the Brand Riesling is on a roll, and he wouldn’t know which to pick as his favorite in the last three vintages (the 2013, ’14 and ’15). Forget about this in your cellar for 10 years; at 13.7% alcohol and 6 g/L residual sugar, it’s a powerful wine that tastes off-dry, and cellaring it will help it blossom into something even more special than it already is. Drink: 2024-2039

Score: 96 Points -- Ian D'Agata, Vinous, 2018