Muller Koeberle, "Mobylette" 2021

A fourth-generation affair, Domaine Müller-Koeberle is in the center of Alsace along the ‘wine route,’ in the famous, winegrowing village Saint-Hippolyte whose historical, viticultural renown has been – uniquely for this region – its reds. “Rouge de Saint Hippolyte,” composed of 100% Pinot Noir has been the calling card for this village amidst this region whose vineyard area dedicated to red grapes has historically been under 3% of its total square footage though this has changed slightly in recent years due to ever-warming temperatures and the ability of the grape to therefore fully ripen throughout a broader cross-section of the region. Given this history, you’d think the wineries working in the most ‘traditional’ way here would be bottling loads of monovarietal Pinot; however, this would be a bit of a misnomer. The original manner in which grape vines grew in Alsace writ large and indeed in Saint Hippolyte was in a totally unique co-plantation of native species of grape varieties (no clones) particularly well-suited to the sites on which they grew. The wines created from these parcels would all be parcellaire field-blends – this is the kind of thinking that David Koeberle takes with him as the current custodian of his family’s estate. Perhaps you’d think – given the rockstar nature of the wines’ literal presentations (label, bottle, et., al) – these would be merely playful, ‘crazy’ natural wines. This would miss the forest for the trees – the current wines represent what Alsace can do so much better than nearly every other region in France when it comes to natural wine: accommodate the past with the present. These are deeply traditional Alsatian wines (wines that skip the more recent viticultural past that was dominated by varietal bottlings of only the ‘noble’ grapes of Alsace) that endeavor toward a kind of purity sought by the more modern ‘natural’ wine scene. This particular cuvée in the share is a perfect example of this high-wire act – a ‘rosé’ that is really just a wine showing a place composed of the (many different and differently-colored) grapes that grew in the place before co-macerating, fermenting, and eventual bottling, unfined, unfiltered, with no additional SO2.  

 St. Hippolyte, Alsace. This is a cofermented rosé of Gewürztraminer, Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, Pinot Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir & Riesling. Most of the white varietals spend about 3 days on the skins while the Pinot Noir gets 2 weeks of maceration. Blended and rested in tank before bottling unfined, unfiltered with no SO2.