Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer

Thierry Meyer at DWWA judging week.

Alsace native Thierry Meyer has dedicated his wine career to this region he calls home.

Writing and sharing tasting notes and insights into Alsace’s wines since 1999, Meyer is the founder of L’Oenothèque Alsace society and www.oenoalsace.com, a comprehensive website committed to this northeast region of France.

A judge at Decanter World Wine Awards since 2013, this year marks a decade since Meyer’s appointment to Regional Chair for Alsace in 2015.

Looking forward to solidifying this milestone in May at judging week, he comments, ‘Alsace has a huge diversity of wines, grapes, terroirs and styles. Therefore, I expect to taste a large range of wines again this year, mostly from the 2022 vintage.

‘2022 was a hot and dry vintage that produced fruity, subtle wines in the plain areas, and slightly fresher styles on the hillside. It will be interesting to find some of the most successful wines, either coming from cooler areas or from older, deeply rooted vines that were able to cope with the draught. We might also taste early bottled wines from 2023, which gives an overview of this ripe and hot vintage.’

Taking note of vintages, changes in wine quality and styles across his decade-plus journey at DWWA, from sparkling Crémant d’Alsace to Grand Cru noble varieties and luscious sweet Gewürztraminers, Meyer explains how the panel tastes Alsace wines and what the judges are looking for when awarding Gold, plus gives advice to producers in the final weeks before entries close on 15 March.

What’s the importance of vintage in Alsace?

Alsace used to be a late harvest region, with harvest usually taking place around the end of September. Also, harvest used to last for a long period, due to the different ripening cycles of all grape varieties in different places. During harvest, weather can be dry and sunny or at times a bit more wet and generate noble rot – sometimes not so noble.

The overall quality of a vintage is determined by two factors: the potential of the best wines of course, but also by the quality distribution. Vintages that suffer from health problems can produce huge variations of quality, both among various geographical areas of the regions, but also between the smallest and the largest growers, who can’t organise harvest in the same way.

As a result, the panel is sometimes impressed by the number of very good wines of a given vintage, like 2019. Sometimes a couple of grape varieties only are that successful. In more challenging cases, like 2021, we are impressed by the gems which can outperform the best wines from other vintages.

How are Alsace wines organised for tasting?

We carefully organise the flights for sparkling, red, dry and sweet wines. White wines from the generic AOC Alsace are sorted by grape variety, vintage and residual sugar. This brings together similar wines into a single flight.

For reds, there are various winemaking styles, and without specific indications of a claret, fruity or oak-barrel aged wine, we usually sort the Pinot Noirs by their degree of alcohol — something that tends to leave the fullest-bodied wines at the end of the flight.

When it comes to Grands Crus, keeping the same sorting criteria would not work because each of the 51 Grand Cru AOC can give huge variations in style. Terroirs are classified into families, based on their geological origin. Since we often don’t have enough wines to create a flight for each Grand Cru, we group wines from similar terroir families.

For example, wines from granite soil Grand Crus (such as Schlossberg, Brand, Sommerberg) are tasted together, whereas wines from limestone dominated soils (Rosacker, Steinert) are grouped in a different flight. The wines are then further sorted by vintage and residual sugar, regardless of the grape variety used. DWWA staff carefully plan the flights following the competition’s protocols and ensure to bring the wines at the right temperature.

So, you taste Grand Cru…


Source : https://www.decanter.com/decanter-world-wine-awards/meet-the-experts-qa-with-thierry-meyer-522820/

Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer * Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer | | Meet the experts: Q&A with Thierry Meyer |