I spent this evening with Hubert, Jean and Pierre Trimbach in Ribeauvillé. As they generally only release their Riesling Frédéric Emile five or six years after harvest, I had asked them to show me younger vintages in order to better understand this wine's evolution. Before dinner, we tasted a 2011 from cask as well as the 2010 and 2009 from bottle. I had thought that these wines would be terribly closed and need years to open, but that is not entirely the case. The 2010 already has excellent balance and promises to be another excellent vintage. At dinner, we started with the 2005, another fine year in the vein of 2002, followed by two wines served blind. This is where Trimbach's house style begins to shine. They were the 1983 and 1979. I thought, given my experience with German Riesling, that they were almost ten years younger. I still remember a few stunning 1990s from estates like Künstler or Koehler-Ruprecht, but I don't know anyone else who has wines like these. It is understandable why Decanter profiled Pierre as one the ten best white wine makers in the world. Hats off… Comments