99 Points Robert Parker
I tasted three 1994 Selection de Grains Nobles wines from Zind-Humbrecht. These wines are made in frightfully tiny quantities, and are so rich that they make Chateau d''Yquem look like an under-nourished wine. Truly the stuff of legends, these SGN possess 15%-18% residual sugar. All three will age for 40-50 years, but will anyone wait that long? They are "off the charts" in terms of flavor extraction, balance, quality, and the lavish quantity of extract and intensity they possess. The 1994 Gewurztraminer Rangen Clos St.-Urbain SGN (99+; $450.00) may be the quintessential sweet Gewurztraminer - at least for my palate. All three wines possess remarkable acidity, which gives them blazingly clear definition - amazing in view of their out of this world extract levels.
Source: Robert Parker (Wine Advocate) by Robert M. Parker, Jr. January, 1997
98 Points Robert Parker
In 1999, Robert Parker called the 1994 Gewürztraminer Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Rangen de Thann Clos St Urbain Selection de Grains Nobles "a quintessential sweet Gewürztraminer" and scored it 99+ points, because he considered it "'off the charts' in terms of flavor extraction, balance, quality, and the lavish quantity of extract and intensity". Well, I did not know it when Olivier poured me this wine (and I am sure that if he knew about the legendary status of his wine in our data base, he at least he did not mention it), so I was free to take my own notes. Bernstein color. Deep, clear and very stony nose, crushed stones, wet volcanic rocks, malty notes, herbs, dark honey, peanut butter, dried apricots, orange zest -- all here what makes the Rangen unique. On the palate, the wine is very clear, deep and precise, very sweet but also fresh and piquant, and provided with a lovely tannin structure that gives the proper backbone to this highly intense and elegant, superbly sweet but balanced SGN, which is as delicate as drinkable. Memorable in every respect. Olivier Humbrecht says, "The wine was picked at 160° Oechsle and harvested with no selection, so we have the whole crop in this wine like only in 1986, 1989, 1994 and 1998."
Source: Robert Parker (Robert Parker Wine Advocate) by Stephan Reinhardt. October, 2015
I tasted three 1994 Selection de Grains Nobles wines from Zind-Humbrecht. These wines are made in frightfully tiny quantities, and are so rich that they make Chateau d'Yquem look like an under-nourished wine. Truly the stuff of legends, these SGN possess 15%-18% residual sugar. All three will age for 40-50 years, but will anyone wait that long? They are "off the charts" in terms of flavor extraction, balance, quality, and the lavish quantity of extract and intensity they possess. The 1994 Gewurztraminer Rangen Clos St.-Urbain SGN (99+; $450.00) may be the quintessential sweet Gewurztraminer - at least for my palate. All three wines possess remarkable acidity, which gives them blazingly clear definition - amazing in view of their out of this world extract levels.
The reviews in this segment are from a memorable tasting held in April, 1997.
Drink: 1997 - 2047
Wine Advocate # 111 Jun 1997