Domaine Zind-Humbrecht
Clos Saint Urbain
Alsace
2019

The producer

Based in Turckheim and today run by Olivier Humbrecht. France’s first Master of Wine, and his wife Margaret, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht is arguably one of the finest estates in Alsace. The Humbrecht family’s roots can be traced back to 1620 and Domaine Zind Humbrecht was founded in 1959. With 40 hectares across five villages in a range of Grand Cru and single vineyard sites, the Domaine produces all four of the Alsatian noble grape varieties – Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer.

Olivier initiated biodynamic practices in 1997 and was fully certified in 2002. The same year he became president of Biodyvin (the biodynamic association). 1992 saw the building of new and ultramodern winery facilities and a cellar in the middle of the Herrenweg vineyard. All the wines mature in large oval foudres with at least eight months on the lees and are characterized by great concentration, complexity, and cleanness.

The wine

Zind-Humbrecht’s 5.5-hectare Rangen de Thann Grand Cru vineyard is the most southerly of Alsace’s vineyards and is situated overlooking the village of Thann. The soil is volcanic rock and sedimentary sandstone and the 90% incline hillside vineyard is fully south facing. The wines from here are distinguished by a strong saline minerality from the volcanic soil and great concentration, structure, depth, and complexity.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.