Domaine Albert Boxler, Niedermorschwihr

Jean Boxler, who has largely taken over winemaking duties from father Jean-Marc, describes this domain '99s as nicely defined wines, though not especially powerfully structured or potentially long-lived. "But we made much less wine than most of our neighbors," Boxler noted. "Due to short pruning followed by spring rain, we lost half of our crop. These wines are less austere at the beginning than the '98s, and are probably for drinking before the 2000s, but many of them may surprise us with their longevity, as some of our '92s did. The '99 vintage was weakest for muscat and gewurztraminer." The Boxlers began the 2000 harvest very early, then stopped picking because they didn't like the quality of the early fruit. "We had some rot in late August and we started picking early, on September 12," explained Jean, "because we were afraid of what would happen with more rain. "But even though the grapes looked good they had a faint mushroomy taste. This taint was almost miraculously eliminated by dry weather later in September, and the fruit harvested later was much cleaner and much more concentrated. All in the all, the 2000 vintage was our most difficult year since 1995; it's more inconsistent than 1999, but the wines have more sugar to hide their faults." Like his father, Jean is an unsparing judge of his own wines; as in most recent years, I found a number of standouts in this cellar, particularly the rieslings from the grand crus Sommerberg and Brand. (Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY)