Trimbach Riesling Clos Sainte Hune 100e Anniversaire 2019 750ml
A truly special bottle from one of Alsace’s most iconic vineyards, this 100th anniversary edition of Clos Sainte Hune celebrates a century of world-class Riesling. The 2019 is precise, pure, and intensely mineral, with layers of citrus, white flowers, and flinty complexity. It’s dry, structured, and built to age—yet already shows incredible elegance and finesse. A collector’s dream and a perfect choice for a memorable occasion (or just a Tuesday if you’re feeling fancy).
*Customer may redeem multiple bottles only if minimum spend required for each bottle is met.
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Jamessuckling.com | JS 100
Published: Nov 7, 2024
So incredibly fresh and expressively youthful, but also extremely deep and harmonious. Great white and yellow peach fruit with touches of white flowers and fine garden herbs. When I first tasted this it was mouthfilling, but during the following years it has slimmed down to a sleeker silhouette, but without losing any of the giant concentration. A great masterpiece of concentration and racy elegance. You can’t taste the 14.3% alcohol, also because of the effusive natural acidity. Drink or hold.
The Wine Advocate | RP 98+
Published: Jan 2, 2025
Drink: 2030-2070
The 2019 Riesling Clos Ste Hune 100e Anniversaire is very clear, fresh and coolish on the precise and refined, very detailed nose that is a clear reflection of the terroir expressed with saline lemon aromas. Generous yet refined on the palate, this is a more classical Riesling compared to 2018, so it's a bit more austere, less textured but more precise and incredibly saline. The tannins are still biting a bit but already playing with the saline acidity, and I assure you that this is a great and balanced classical Riesling that will make its way over the years. Personally, I adore this style (or vintage) since it shows the finesse and purity of the clos rather than its power and richness at this stage. Keep it for at least 10 or, if you can, 20 years. Tasted at the domaine in April 2024 and again on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Clos Ste Hune at the beginning of November, with the same result, but another note: Coming with the ancient label, the intensely yellow colored 2019 Clos Sainte Hune is clear, bright, fresh and savory, very intense yet most of all deep, rich and precise on the terroir-driven nose. Based on very, very old vines, this is a full-bodied, rich and densely textured, quite powerful and tightly structured Riesling with lots of salts and the depth and power of Trimbach’s east/southeast-facing 1.67-hectare plot within the Grand Cru Rosacker. The finish is very intense and shows even marzipan aromas as well as great vitality and mineral freshness. This is a truly great and firmly structured Clos Ste Hune that is based on a yield of 40 to 45 hectoliters per hectare, "like every year," as Jean Trimbach says. "The marly limestone terroir allows higher yields compared to granite, which allows at max 35 hectoliters per hectare." The 2019 was bottled with 14.3% stated alcohol and 2.94 grams per liter of residual sugar. The total acidity of 8.32 grams per liter is also remarkable, though.
At the center of this year's tastings at Trimbach was the Clos Sainte Hune, and with good reason. The 2019 vintage has just been released, celebrating the 100th anniversary of this dry Riesling, which was first produced in 1919 and, if Jean Trimbach is to be believed, was “then no different from today.” The Riesling, which many have considered for decades to be the best and most complex dry Riesling in the world (which, unfortunately, is also reflected in the price), comes from a 1.67-hectare parcel in the grand cru Rosacker in Hunawihr, which faces east/southeast. Most of the vines are very old, 100 years or more, and densely planted on pure Muschelkalk (shell limestone) and yellow limestone soils. In November, the family celebrated the birthday in style with a first vertical at the domaine in Ribeauvillé and crowned the evening at the Auberge de l'Ill with further historic vintages of this wine, which is characterized by power, complexity and longevity.
In 100 years, there was only one vintage that was not bottled as a dry (or at least reasonably dry) Riesling because the vintage did not produce it: the 1989 came onto the market as a Vendanges Tardives, and what can I say? It is the only Clos Ste Hune to receive 100 points, not because of its sweetness but because it is simply magnificent in its infinite richness, complexity, elegance and finesse. It's a true vintage of the century but is rivaled by the still-young 2018, 2019 and the 1990. And nobody would have thought that the 1967, of all years, would come close to these icons, not in terms of style but in terms of perfection. But maybe it was just the perfect bottle?
The vertical, of course, did not include 100 vintages. Many of them have not been available for a long time, but the number was sufficient enough to continue to consider Clos Ste Hune as one of the great Rieslings in the world. Incidentally, like all of the family's vineyards, Clos Ste Hune has been cultivated organically since 2008 yet certified only since 2023. It is possible that the next 100-pointer is already in the bottle, only no one knows which vintage will one day stand out and surpass the others.
Honor to whom honor is due: we have separated the tastings of Clos Sainte Hune from the rest of Alsace and will soon be delivering more current Trimbach wines as part of a more comprehensive Alsace report.
Trimbach.fr
An exceptional terroir on the Grand Cru Rosacker in Hunawihr , this Clos, which has belonged to the Trimbach family for over two hundred years, extends over 1.67 hectares.
The vineyard, which is over fifty years old, benefits from a southern, south-eastern exposure on a subsoil dominated by Muschelkalk (or shell limestone) and yellow limestone.
Conditions that give this Riesling a specific aroma and a remarkable concentration of fruit enhanced by a refined hint of minerality on the finish and an incredible length... the signs of recognition so typical of Clos Sainte Hune after a few years of aging.
The small annual production, 7000 bottles on average, makes it a precious wine coveted by all Riesling lovers and collectors around the world.
Clos Sainte Hune, with its exceptional ageing potential, only reaches its peak after eight to ten years following bottling.
“The dominant sensation is minerality…” Serge Dubs, Best Sommelier in the World 1989
"If there is one Riesling in the world that every wine lover dreams of tasting and savoring, it is Clos Sainte Hune. A high-class, distinguished, refined, elegant dry wine, with ripe fruit and a pronounced minerality that give it its unique character.
It has its own signature and is transcendent in great vintages. It is a wine that makes you dream due to its harmony and its exceptional capacity for aging.
Keep: exceptional.