2018 Gaisböhl Monopol Grand Cru Pfalz Dr. Bürklin-Wolf

Well more than half of this gently sloping 20-acre monopole Einzellage featuring gravel over sandstone and clay is deemed by Bürklin-Wolf in principle “grand cru,” though that doesn’t mean all of the fruit from those parcels will end up in any given vintage’s “G.C.” bottling. More than a quarter of this year’s rendition was fermented in tank, but like the cask-fermented share, it stayed on the full lees for a year before being racked into a blending tank and left for additional months on the fine lees. It was due for bottling less than a month after my mid-November 2019 tasting. Yeasty and struck-flint reductive notes vie for attention with intriguing scents of sea breeze and raw beef as well as of more predictably pit- and seed-inflected white peach and lemon. Like many a great red Burgundy or Chablis, this is one of those wines whose nose alone leaves you wondering how such a thing could come from grapes. The palate impression is palpably dense and uncommonly waxy, suggesting a concentrated meat and mineral broth. The finish grips with impressive tenacity, especially in its effect on the salivary glands.