2023 Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl Alsace 6pk 6x750ml

Domaine Zind-Humbrecht is among the best-known producers in Alsace, with a winegrowing lineage stretching back to 1620. The domaine was created in 1959 when Leonard Humbrecht married Genevieve Zind, and today it's run by Olivier Humbrecht — the first Frenchman to qualify as Master of Wine. Forty hectares of estate vineyards, farmed biodynamically since the early days, with yields held to 30-40 hectoliters per hectare. That level of rigor is the entire house in one number.

Clos Windsbuhl is one of the domaine's Grand Cru holdings, where Pinot Gris finds its most profound expression. Alsace Grand Cru sites are the region's crown jewels, classified for their singular terroir and the precision they bring to the glass. This is Pinot Gris at its most serious: structured, mineral-driven, built for the cellar.

The 2023 vintage shows pale gold in the glass. The nose is marked by noble long full lees contact, showing aromas of complex reduction — grilled, smoked, toasted — with an underlying panoply of white fruits. The palate is precise, tense, fleshy, with beautiful length and superb expression of limestone terroir. The finish shows ripe soft complex bitterness and extraordinary salivation resulting from magnesium richness of limestone.

James Suckling scored it 98 points. This is a great wine for laying down.