Pinot Gris Selection de Grains Nobles
⏳ Drinking Window
2021 - 2040
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Pan-seared foie gras with quince compote, Roquefort or mature blue cheeses, tarte Tatin.
✨ Technical Specifications
Crafted only in exceptional vintages conducive to Noble Rot, this Sélection de Grains Nobles is sourced from sheltered hillside plots with clay-limestone and sandstone substrates. Successive manual passes (tries successives) select only individual botrytized Pinot Gris berries that have reached high sugar concentrations. Fermentation proceeds very slowly under temperature-controlled conditions in stainless steel vats to preserve aromatic purity, followed by extended maturation on fine lees to integrate the concentrated residual sugar with rich texture and acidity.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1959 at the southern gateway of the Route des Vins d'Alsace, La Cave du Vieil-Armand takes its name from the legendary Hartmannswillerkopf peak, where local winegrowers united after the devastation of World War I to revive the region's historic slopes. Today, this cooperative unites approximately 75 to 80 winegrowing families managing roughly 150 hectares spread across the sub-Vosgian hills between Cernay and Guebwiller. Viticulture benefits from east-to-south exposures, sheltering Vosges microclimates, and diverse clay-limestone and marno-sandstone topsoils, prominently exemplified in the Grand Cru Ollwiller and the historical Château Ollwiller estate. Farmed under Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE 3) guidelines with expanding certified organic parcels, the estate focuses on terroir-driven precision and purity of varietal fruit. Winemaking emphasizes gentle handling and temperature-controlled stainless steel vinification, yielding expressive dry bottlings, classic Crémant d'Alsace, and celebrated, botrytis-affected Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris Vendanges Tardives and Sélections de Grains Nobles.
🍇 Grapes
Pinot Gris
🍷 ABV
11% - 13%