When speaking of Alsace these days, it’s a safe bet to use the wines of Marcel Deiss as a jumping off point. While not as well-known as, say, Zind-Humbrecht or Domaine Weinbach, Deiss was one of the prime movers of the biodynamic farming movement in France, and his field blends, often produced with longer skin contact and no sulfur additions, pushed the envelope so far, a generation rushed in afterwards to follow suit. Deiss’ wines are now considered not only the most influential, state-of-the-art in the region, but also some of the best qualitatively and most dynamic stylistically. But we’re not here to speak of Marcel, nor his son and the current owner of the domaine, Jean-Michel. No. Who has our attention today is Jean-Michel’s son Mathieu (and his partner Emmanuelle Milan). Using everything he learned while studying under his father and grandfather at Marcel Deiss, he has gone on to create something new and unique called Le Vignoble de Reveur (the ‘Vineyard of the Dreamer’). This tiny estate was founded on the strength of a seven-hectare legacy left to Mathieu by his uncle and, while it was created on the basis of everything learned at Deiss, it’s breaking new ground with a stable of extraordinarily interesting and really delicious wines. Mathieu, like his father and grandfather, continues to look at his wines not so much varietally, but as complex blends that take advantage of each grape variety’s strengths to make something better than the sum of its parts. He converted his uncle’s vines- most aged well over 40 years- from organic to biodynamic, and they’ve been Demeter certified since 2013. He also experiments with long macerations, ages in a wide variety of wooden, steel, cement and terracotta containers to create complexity, and bottles his production without any sulfur additions at all. These wines push boundaries but, unlike a lot of the so-called ‘natural’ and ‘orange’ wines we taste these days, they are clean, precise and extremely delicious and food friendly. We particularly fell for the wine Mathieu calls Singulier, a ‘singular’ blend of approximately 60% Pinot Gris and 40% Riesling that are separately fermented on their natural yeasts, macerated on their skins for almost three weeks and then kept on their lees in steel tank for a full year before being blended and bottled without any sulfur. Singulier presents like a so-called ‘orange’ wine in that the extra skin contact has made it a ruddy sort of fuchsia color. but the aromatics are shockingly pure and laser-focused with Riesling’s peaches and Pinot Gris’ mango front and center. Spicy, bright and well-balanced, there is also plenty of Alsace’s hallmark oily texture on a frame that finishes, unlike so many Alsatian wines we taste these days, bone dry and very zingy. Boo-yah! We loved this stuff, and came up with a hundred different pairings revolving around fish (smoked?), poultry and cheese dishes that would be remarkable. You haven’t had anything like it but you should.

The real epiphany from our tasting of the Reveur wines, though, was the ‘red’ Mathieu has named Rien ne Bouge. Created by macerating whole bunches of Pinot Noir in the fermenting juice of white Riesling, Pinot d’Alsace and, believe it or not, Gewurztraminer grapes for 10 days, the finished wine is as crimson red as any Pinot Noir I’ve ever seen, but so much different! Richly aromatic with red currants, dried cherries, lantana, orange peel and white pepper, it’s a delightfully snappy red that has all the finesse one would express from an Alsatian Pinot, but aromatically more complex and satisfying with hints of yellow peach, smoked meat and savory spices. Middleweight on the palate and earthy and fresh on the finish, we thought it would be nice with a bit of a chill alongside a summer meal in the backyard and might be the perfect wine to wheel out for Thanksgiving when you have to match all those different flavors. We really loved this wine and loved the price too. It’s a terrific value.