The Deiss 2011 Grasberg leads with saline, alkaline and marine aromatics, though also with intimations of the diverse ripe peach, pear, and melons – backed by distinct sweetness – that mark a ripe and infectiously juicy though firm palate. There is grip and nearly explosive interactivity in the finish, with nut oils, nutmeg, caraway as well as mineral elements bouncing off of the rich, resilient base of ripe fruit. Hardship of site certainly seems to have borne positive results here. Look for exciting performances through at least 2025. Deiss finds this “a bit timid” when compared with the corresponding 2010, but those are hardly words I would use to describe it!
”The vintage is not a reliable partner of the vintner,” declares Jean-Michel Deiss. “Rather, it is every year an obstacle. You have to bank on your terroir.” It’s certainly easy to understand such an attitude when confronted with two such dissimilarly tricky vintages as 2010 and 2011, in which Deiss also credits the stabilizing influence of his terroir and vine management in his having “harvested significantly more wine than my colleagues in 2010 and significantly less in 2011.” Apropos the faithlessness of the growing season and of vintage character, Deiss is wont to interject whenever I effuse over the scents emanating from one of his bottlings that aroma, too, is capricious and unfaithful. “I’m seeking to create wines for the mouth, not the nose” he says.
(WA 28th Aug 2014)
